“I’ve waited for you for so long,” he whispered into her ear, stroking her soft blonde hair with his fingers. She couldn’t say the words, couldn’t bring herself to utter a single syllable. But inside her soul she responded, “I know.”
And something told her that he knew.
Chapter Five
Madison sat in front of the television, the ruby red afghan wrapped over her shoulders. She wasn’t actually watching it though, just letting the stream of sounds and images happen before her, her mind reeling over what had just happened in Will’s bedroom.
No man ever had gone down on her before. It just never occurred to her as something that was possible. Her friend Chelsea had mentioned it once, but the way they discussed it was more of an anomaly, an exception rather than a rule.
The guys who wanted to do that, she had decided, were weird. They had a fetish or something.
But now as she sat in complete awe of what had passed between them, and she knew she was wrong. Will was a grown man, and before she had only ever been with boys.
“Hungry?” Will called to her from the kitchen. He was so calm, so casual as he walked around shirtless, a half-smile spread lazily across his face.
She was amazed by him, by every movement of his body, by the feeling that sprung between them like a hot spring. She turned around to look over the couch, spotting his lean body as it hung against the doorframe, his ocean blue eyes appraising her.
“Yeah actually...whatever you’re cooking smells wonderful,” she said, a warm, savory aroma filling her nostrils.
“It’s just a pot roast and some potatoes. Nothing to write home about,” he said humbly. “Though if I really wanted to impress you I’d make a raspberry pie, but I didn’t think to pick any this morning. We have a bush in the backyard.”
“I can go get some for you,” Madison offered, eager for an excuse to get off the couch and move around.
“It’s late. I’m not going to make you search around some silly berries.”
“No, don’t worry about it. I want to be useful. Just point me towards a basket,” she said, getting up from the couch and walking around it to stand before him.
“Well, okay,” he shook his head. “If you insist.” He leaned down to place a kiss on her forehead, causing her stomach to do flips. Then a sneaky smile crossed his lips and he trailed his fingers along the front of the bathrobe he had lent her, moving the fabric with his fingers to reveal more of her right breast.
“There’s a basket by the backdoor. Don’t stay out too late, okay?”
Madison nodded and grinned up at him, tightening the the tie of the bathrobe around her waist. Even the little kiss on her cheek had put her in such a state that she could hardly breathe, let alone talk.
She found her way to the backyard, stepping off the wooden steps of the porch into the dimly lit backyard. Madison spotted the bushes straightaway and began picking them with her free hand, the basket in her other. She realized quickly that she had been foolish to offer, since picking berries in the evening actually proved to be slightly difficult. She mostly relied on their firmness, testing them between her forefinger and thumb.
When she decided that she had collected enough berries, she turned back to go into the house. She was just about to step onto the first step of the back porch when she heard it: a rustling in the bushes that sounded much louder than any small critter could cause.
Maybe it’s a deer, she thought, even though she was paralyzed with fear.
Then she heard that wicked growl, the same one from earlier.
She turned and opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. The mountain lion stared her down, blood streaming down its side.
From the other side of the yard a dark brown blur shot across it, pummeling the creature down again.
“Will!” Madison managed as she ran up to the door, throwing it open and calling out in a panicked frenzy. But before she could his name a second time he came rushing out, his eyes smaller and darker, fangs protruding from his mouth and tufts of sandy hair bursting from his neck and down his chest.
Madison yelped in horror, stepping backwards so that she almost fell down the stairs. But Will caught her quickly, much faster than any person could actually react.
“Don’t worry. Just trust me,” he said as he moved her to the side. He rushed down the stairs and pulled down his jeans to reveal his legs, misshapen and completely covered in a thick, sandy fur.
“Holy shit,” Madison whispered in horror. He was turning into a bear. A big, blonde grizzly bear. And he threw himself at another panther that had shown up behind the first, one that she hadn’t even seen earlier. There was a horrific clash of fangs and claws, and Madison held her hands over her eyes, peaking through her fingers in horror.
One of the panthers had Will’s neck in its mouth and she cried out, but the other bear quickly pummeled that panther to the side, pinning it down to the ground and roaring in its face. It rapidly shrank, the tufts of hair pulling into its body, its entire shape shifting, until it was nothing more than the naked body of a scrawny man.
“Jake,” she gasped, watching the thin man pant, his eyes closed as his bloody body lay defeated between the big brown paws of the bear.
Then the other panther shrank, similarly beaten up and defeated, until a much bigger man was left in the buff. It was Paul, a deep red gash across his chest.
“Fine,” Paul coughed. “We’ll leave her.”
The bear above him roared, shrinking down into a man, poised over Paul as his fur retracted into his tan skin.
“Get out of Titusville while you’re at it,” Caleb snarled, his bare muscular behind completely exposed to Madison. While under normal circumstances she would be in total awe of what a fine specimen of man he was, the whole naked shifter covered in blood aspect was proving to be more than she could bear.
She turned on her heel and ran back into the house, closing the door behind her and pressing her back against the adjacent wall. She took in a few steady breaths, trying to make sense of the scene outside.
The door opened and she felt a hand fall lightly on her shoulder. She flinched instinctively, but calmed down when she saw Will in his human body, his lower half clothed but a nasty scratch across his abdomen. She brought her fingers to it, running them over the gash lightly.
“Are you okay?” she asked, suddenly frightened for him.
“Am I okay?” Will laughed and shook his head. “You’re incredible. You probably just experienced the scariest thing in your life and you’re asking me if I’m okay?” Will pecked her lips quickly and stared down at her with a reassuring smile. “I’m fine. We heal fast, all of us.”
“So...” Madison hesitated. She had been very horrified by the state of Paul, and she was afraid to even ask if he was okay. He looked like he needed to get to a hospital, and fast.
“Paul and Jake will be fine. Caleb too, promise. What you saw there wasn’t usual for us.”
“But...what are you?” Madison asked. She was white as a sheet. Will took her by the hand and led her to the couch, urging her to sit down next to him.
“We’re shifters. All of us. Caleb and I were born werebears. His grandfather was one and both of my parents are as well. Of course they wanted me raised up here with my aunt because where they live just outside of Seattle, and there were a lot of shifter wars back then. I know it may be hard for you to believe, but it’s relatively calm here.”
Madison’s eyes grew big as she stared at him in disbelief. “You mean it gets crazier than what I just saw?”
“Don’t get me wrong, that very easily could have gotten out of control. But Paul and Jake are new shifters, changed by the damned werepanther that killed Caleb’s father. They’re in a kind of rebellious stage where they want to fight and claim a mate. Unfortunately, they set their eyes on you.”
Madison blinked, trying to comprehend what he was saying. “What do you mean a mate? You mean both of them?”
Will pulled the afghan
from off the couch and over Madison, wrapping a warm arm around her shoulder. “You’re shivering,” he murmured, kissing the side of her head lightly. “The thing with shifters is that they have strong primal instincts. Destroying things and killing other animals is one.”
Madison sucked in her teeth, her heart skipping a beat.
“Don’t worry. Caleb and I have been shifters long enough that we both know how to control it. Another is that we’re territorial and protective, as you just saw.”
“But...what about the whole mate thing?”
“That’s another one of the instincts I was talking about. The one that Jake and Paul clearly can’t control to save there lives,” he chuckled, but the look in his eyes was dark. Clearly he wasn’t going to let anyone lay a hand, or a paw, on Madison. She shivered at the thought.
“They want have you as their mate, that’s why they broke into your house. When you bond with a mate, she or he becomes a part of your pack. You know when she’s in danger and she knows when you are. You feel their presence, feel the bond more intensely than any other. It’s really like marriage in a lot of ways because once you commit to it, it can only be broken by death.”
Madison gulped. The thought of being bond to Paul or Jake forever was completely horrifying. “So...were they going to fight each other for me? That sounds insane.”
“No, they were fighting us for you. You see Maddie, Caleb and I already chose you all of those years ago. We both felt a strong desire to imprint you, but at the time we were both to young.”
“Imprint?” she half-whispered, trying to understand everything he was saying without losing her mind.
“It’s when you officially consummate your bond with your mate. But of course, we couldn’t do that at such a young age. We just both knew that someday you’d come back, and that we’d have to convince you to be with us. That’s why I could only go so far with you earlier...I would have lost control and imprinted on you without Caleb.”
“Both of you?” she gawked. “But how does that...work?”
“We can show you,” he said in a low, husky voice that immediately made her wet between her thighs.
Before Madison could think of how to respond, the back door opened again and Caleb burst in, a towel pulled around his waist. His thick black hair was a mess, tossed over his amber eyes and a gash through his left eyebrow.
“Guess it’s time that we settle this then,” he said gruffly, moving towards the couch in several large, uncouth steps. The energy he carried around him was barbaric, abrupt and wild in the way Madison had only previously seen in the subtext of his words and actions.
But clearly he was done with whatever pretensions of civilization he was used to carrying around, and he lifted Madison over his shoulder without another word, one thick arm bandaged around her lower back as her head dangled over his. She shrieked, unnerved and strangely turned on by the savage interaction.
“Put her down, Caleb,” Will warned, his voice deadly. “I just started to calm her down and now you’re scaring her again.”
“I don’t have time for this,” Caleb retorted in a short, snappy tone. “She wants us, she feels the fucking bond. It’s time for us to take what’s ours...”
“Caleb!” Will roared, but it was too late. Madison could feel him shifting beneath her, the gruff hair bursting through his back, the towel falling to the ground as his lower half expanded into something entirely inhuman. Her fear caught in her throat as she realized she was at mercy of a beast. She clung to his fur out of desperation, wrapping her arms as far as she could around his body, thick like an ancient tree. She opened her eyes for a split second to see that Will was shifting too, and to her horror his khaki fur ripped through his denim as his face merged into that of a ferocious grizzly.
Within seconds Caleb was off, Will at his heel. The dark bear beneath her broke through the back door, the wood splintering over her body as she quickly shielded her face into his coarse fur. Will roared behind them, a guttural animal sound that rocked through Madison’s body, thrilling and enticing her. She could hardly think straight, let alone anything at all as the bear beneath her tore through the wilderness, dodging trees, rocks and shrubs at an extraordinary pace.
All Madison could hope to do was feel—feel the wind as it whipped past her face, the rough fur beneath her palms, the sinewy body that moved beneath her, powerful and erotic with its lack of grace...
Just riding on his back she could feel an erotic charge between her legs, and she could see clearly in her mind’s eye just how Caleb looked the moment before he transformed. He was both robust and powerless in his desire, the sovereignty in his hazel eyes lost in a barbaric need as they darkened, a shadow of lust lining his irises.
But before she could lose her mind, charged with the dynamic ardor of his storming body, he stopped abruptly, nearly tossing her from his back with his curt movement.
Shivering, Madison lifted her head to see that she was enveloped in darkness, a faint light falling from a source behind them, which illuminated little more than some gray rocks. Caleb’s body began to shift beneath her once again, and she tumbled from him onto the ground, realizing that without his heat beneath her she was unbearably cold.
Will popped up behind them, still snarling in his bear form. She could only make out the shadow of his figure as he transformed back into a man, the dark outline shrinking against the light from a small opening.
“A cave,” she murmured, marveling as she suddenly realized where she was.
“Our cave,” Caleb grunting, moving around in the dark and fiddling with something just behind her. Then a small light illuminated, revealing the expanse of the cave as Caleb continued to ignite a series of gas lamps set against the curved wall. It wasn’t especially big, but it was about the size of two master bedrooms in width and the ceiling was at least ten feet tall. Will quickly approached her, the soft orange glow of the lamps illuminating the deep groves of his body, giving the hard lines of his chest an ethereal softness that weakened her knees.
“Are you okay?” he asked, reaching down to take her hand and raise her up. Madison kept her line of vision from falling below his waist, something she quickly realized she wasn’t acquainted with yet, but desperately yearned to be.
“Yeah,” she managed, rendered breathless by his beauty, by the strange hauntingly gorgeous quality the cave leant him. Caleb stepped behind Will, his gaze stony as it ran over Madison’s body, as if searching for something. She shuddered, noting the air of mystery the cave leant to the two already stunning men.
“What the hell is your problem?” Will snapped, turning back to Caleb.
“I’ve been waiting for thirteen years to take what’s mine. That’s my problem,” he replied gruffly, shoving Will to the side and grabbing Madison by the waist, pulling her soft, sinuous body against his own, hard like a cut stone.
She gasped as his hand trailed down lower, grabbing her ass with a vice grip. He let out a satisfied groan, one that jolted her core and caused her nipples to pebble so hard they poked through the thin silk of the bathrobe and into Caleb’s chest.
She couldn’t fight it anymore. She wanted every inch of his body beneath her touch, to feel every inch of him as it rocked inside of her.
“Take what’s yours,” she said, thrilled by the heat of his mouth only mere inches away from her own.
“It’s what I always intended to do,” he replied, a small smirk playing at his lips before he kissed her passionately, his tongue darting around her mouth with such force that she saw a burst of stars behind her eyelids. Then she felt a hot touch from behind her, a pair of heated hands trailing up her neck, a firm chest pressing into her back, a stiff bulge in the space where her cheeks met...
Caleb’s kisses trailed down her neck, and she rolled her head over her right to meet Will’s mouth, reveling in the sizzling heaven that he offered her. Caleb’s hands moved to her front, pulling at the robe’s tie and loosing the knot so that the front fell open, revealing her b
reasts to him for the first time.
“Damn,” he breathed, lowering his kisses to her left breast and then her right, taking each of her pink nipples into his mouth in turn. Everything was slow for Madison as she kissed Will, as if she were underwater; each savoring lick of his tongue was an eternity of bliss.
Then she gasped, feeling a pair of prying fingers opening her lower lips, dancing around her clitoris and teasing her opening. It was all she could do to keep from coming right then and there, the suggestive force of the hot skin almost more than she could stand.
“I want to taste you,” she gasped, suddenly eager to have a thick girth of man inside of her. She heard a growl, unsure of whose it was, a force coming down onto her shoulders. She sank down to her knees and opened her eyes, spotting Caleb’s large, turgid cock.
She gasped at how well endowed he was, and slowly moved her tongue over his tip, seducing him before taking his length inside her mouth. Then he sank to his knees, taking her down lower with him so that she was on all fours, forcing the robe to slide down her arms.
Will lifted the back of the robe from behind, moving his masculine hands over her ass, groping her ample backside with a force that sent shivers down her spine. Then he found her slit, pressing his thumb into it slowly, testing her width.
“You’re so wet,” he growled, and then she felt something else press against her opening. Something thicker that made her moan out against Caleb’s member. She wondered briefly how it was possible that they were both so well endowed, but the thought faded as soon as she had it. She could think of nothing more than the thickness that was filling her, sliding slowly in and out of her at first, before picking up speed and driving her body into Caleb’s, his cock pressing into the back of her throat.
Madison’s body filled with a helpless frenetic passion, flashes of lightening that ran along her limbs. Caleb grabbed her hair and roared, and for a brief moment she saw a flash of fangs break through his lips. She yelped as he pulled her head back, emboldened by the sweet fire of pain that ran down her scalp and neck.
Too Much to Bear (BBW Shifter Ménage) Page 5
