Smokejumpers 2 Werebear: Bear Shifters

by Kim Fox

  Beckett’s stomach dropped. Amanda looked to him and all Beckett could do was stare back blankly. Matteo was his alpha now. He couldn’t question him.

  She turned and sprinted back to her cabin. I’ll still see her. Just not at camp.

  He wanted to go comfort her, go tell her it was going to be okay. But he couldn’t. Not until he was dismissed.

  “You’ve gotten lazy,” Matteo hissed. “Weak. Slow.” He walked around them like an army drill instructor initiating a group of new recruits. “From now on you’ll be working hard. You’ll be disciplined. I want the Hudson Crew to be the best damn bear shifter crew in the world. Not like the pathetic sissies that you are now.”

  Beckett watched in horror. I’ve created a monster.

  “Twenty laps around the camp,” Matteo yelled. “Now!”

  The guys took off as Beckett watched Matteo in disbelief. Keene slammed into his shoulder as he jogged passed. “Thanks a lot asshole,” he whispered under his breath.

  six

  Beckett plunged his hands into the soapy water and scrubbed the pancake encrusted pan. Soapsuds cascaded down the metal as he placed it on the drying rack.

  “You have to scrub it,” Sander complained. “Look at all of the food encrusted in the rings.” He tossed it back in the sink, spraying Beckett’s shirt with water. “Do it properly.”

  Beckett’s inner bear growled. His bear didn’t like being told what to do. You’re the one that chose her. You can’t have both. But that wasn’t entirely true. Beckett had chosen her as well.

  He scrubbed the pan until it was spotless. “There,” he said placing it back on the rack.

  “You have to rinse it,” Finch complained, holding a dish towel.

  Beckett groaned. He held it under the running water as he glanced back at Matteo, sitting in an Adirondack chair basking in the sun.

  “I can’t believe you don’t know how to do the dishes,” Keene said. “I’m sure you would have heard us with those elephant ears.” He flicked Beckett’s right ear with his finger.

  “Look over there,” Finch said, turning Beckett’s head. “Perfect. Now we have HBO.”

  Beckett’s bear growled as the guys erupted in laughter. Their quips and insults had never involved him before.

  “I don’t think Beckett’s bear likes being made fun of,” Sander said. “Maybe a new pair of earrings will cheer him up.” He ran behind the kitchen lean-to and came back holding two tractor tires. “Try them on.”

  Keene slapped Beckett hard on the back and laughed in his ear. Even Ellis stifled a chuckle.

  “I hear laughing,” Matteo said, strutting over to the kitchen.

  “We have ten years of ear jokes pent up,” Keene said. “We finally get to release them.”

  Beckett’s bear grumbled. He wasn’t enjoying the new dynamics of the crew.

  “What did I say about joking?” Matteo asked.

  “I think the same thing that Hitler said,” Keene replied.

  “For that you just earned you and your brothers twenty laps.”

  Finch groaned. It was too hot for laps.

  “I have to go out and find a new plane, somehow,” Matteo said, “since the last alpha was reckless and irresponsible.”

  Beckett squeezed the handle of the frying pan. His bear urged him to spin around and smack it against Matteo’s head.

  “I want the hangar spotless by the time I get back.”

  Beckett had planned to meet Amanda today in her motel room in town. He drove her to the Montana Maple Inn and paid her room for a week.

  “I’ll talk to Matteo,” he told her. “I’ll get your job back. He’s just acting tough now to affirm his dominance but he’ll calm down.”

  Matteo wiped his finger along the counter and inspected his fingertip for dirt.

  “I have to go in town today,” Beckett said.

  “Absolutely not,” Matteo replied, with his hands on his hips. “Nobody leaves without my permission.”

  “Are we slaves now?” Beckett asked.

  Matteo grabbed an apple off the counter and bit into it with a crunch. He walked away, ignoring Beckett’s question.

  “Remember,” he said, with his back to them. “Spotless!”

  Amanda sat on the hard mattress of the motel, flipping through the static filled stations of her black and white TV.

  She had been fired before, but never before her first actual day on the job. She hadn’t even been to one smoke jump before she got canned.

  She turned the TV off and threw the remote onto the bedside table. She lay down on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. A small spider crawled across the cracked drywall. When is Beckett going to get here?

  There was a knock on the door and Amanda sprung out of bed and answered it with a smile. There he was, holding a small bouquet of flowers.

  She lunged into him, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips. He stumbled into the room and closed the door with his foot.

  He kissed her lips, frantic and intense. They had been separated for only a few hours but it felt like a lifetime.

  The flowers fell to the floor and got crushed under their feet as his hands grabbed her ass and pulled off clothes in a frenzy.

  Their tongues tangled together as she pulled off his shirt. He picked her up in his strong arms and carried her to the bed. She spread her legs as he laid her down and leaned down on top of her, pressing his hard erection over her already wet pussy.

  There were too many layers between them. They stopped kissing to frantically unbuckled their pants. Beckett grabbed her jeans and panties and slid them off her legs. He stood up and pulled down his own pants as she pulled off her shirt and unhooked her bra.

  His hardness pressed against his tight boxers and Amanda moaned as she remembered how his cock felt thrust deep inside her.

  He slid his boxers down his legs and his long, hard cock sprung out. She grabbed his arm, digging her nails into his bicep as she pulled him down on top of her. She was wet and ready and way past foreplay.

  He leaned his weight on his flexed arm as he handled his cock and pressed it into her opening. She grabbed the pillow by her head and ripped it across the room as she arched her back in ecstasy.

  He was so big.

  He stretched her open and filled her completely.

  He grunted, manly and savagely in her ear, as he pressed all the way inside her. His chest was vibrating on hers, making her nipples hard. Making them tingle.

  She spread her legs out as far she could as he rammed into her, frantic and violent. There was no romance this time. It was pure fucking. And it was amazing.

  She scraped his flexed back muscles with her nails as he came inside her, sudden and intense. She screamed his name as she quickly followed, her body tightening and then the glorious release.

  He collapsed on top of her and breathed in her neck as the warmth of his seed and the heat of her orgasm flowed through her body.

  She stared at the ceiling as she tried to catch her breath. The spider was over her head, frozen. Watching them. Pervert. She giggled and pulled Beckett in closer, kissing his neck. She hadn’t realized how much she actually missed him until now.

  “Sorry about your flowers,” Amanda said, trying to spruce up the trampled roses.

  “Don’t apologize to me,” he said with a laugh. “They’re yours.”

  Amanda peeled back a petal and the whole flower fell to pieces. The severity of her situation was finally hitting her. She had no job, nowhere to live after this week, no money in the bank and no prospects on the horizon.

  “He’ll hire you back,” Beckett said, as if he was reading her mind. He was sitting in the bed, naked, with the blankets pulled up to his waist. “This is all just a show of dominance right now. He’ll hire you back.”

  Amanda wasn’t so sure. Matteo had only looked at her with hatred since the moment she had landed in the camp.

  “I can’t believe that you stepped down for me,” she said, smelling a rose that surviv
ed the trampling. Nobody had ever done anything like that for her before.

  “But,” she said walking to the bed. He stared at her naked body with lust and desire. Her nipples hardened and her skin tingled at his gaze. She had always been a bit ashamed of how she looked naked, a bit too big and a few more curves than was considered sexy, but the way he stared hungrily at her made her ready for round two.

  “But what?”

  “But why can’t you have both? Alpha and me?” She climbed under the sheets and curled up to him.

  “It’s never been done before.”

  “So?”

  He stared at her with a look of confusion. “What do you mean?”

  “You can do it,” she said, brushing her fingernails on the inside of his forearm. “You’re strong. Your bear is strong. I think you can do both.”

  He leaned back on the pillow and stared up at the ceiling, contemplating her words.

  “There’s always a first for everything. I think you can be the first alpha to take on a mate.” She ran her fingers through the thin hair on his chest.

  “I’ll help,” she said. “We’ll keep each other focused.” She kissed his neck. “Responsible.” She kissed his nipple. She reached under the blanket and ran her fingers along his hardening cock. “I won’t take you away from your duties this time,” she said, kissing his abs.

  He hardened in her hand as she kissed his belly button.

  “We can do this,” she said, pulling the blanket away. “You can do this.”

  She glanced up at the spider watching on the ceiling. Little perv, she said to herself and then lowered her head and took care of her man.

  seven

  Beckett drove back into camp in the late afternoon. The pickup truck that Matteo took that morning was still gone. He wouldn’t be in trouble for leaving.

  He squeezed the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. In trouble for leaving. It was killing him to be so submissive. This did not feel natural at all.

  Can Amanda be right? Is it possible to have a mate and be an alpha?

  It had never been done before but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be done. But was he willing to take that chance? Was he already too soft? He wasn’t sure if he could even beat Matteo in a fight. And if he did would it just plunge the crew into chaos again?

  He got out of the truck and headed to the hangar. The guys were inside cleaning it out.

  “Thanks for covering for me,” Beckett said, walking in.

  “You’re doing dishes for a month,” Finch said, walking with the canoe above his head.

  “And you’re washing the floors of my cabin for a month,” Sander said, scrubbing the wall.

  “I want a foot massage,” Keene said. “A good one. I have a corn that needs some love.”

  “Laundry,” Quint said. “One month.”

  “And be careful with his scarves,” Keene joked. “They’re all designer brands.”

  “Alright fine,” Beckett said. He could still feel Amanda’s hands on him, her soft lips on his. It was worth anything that these jokers came up with. He glanced at Ellis who was scrubbing an oil stain out of the floor. “What about you?”

  “I’ll let you pass this one time,” Ellis said. “But next time…my toilet needs cleaning.”

  A white pickup truck pulled into the camp and parked next to the other two.

  “Great,” Quint mumbled. “The werenazi is back.”

  “He’s not so bad,” Keene said, “if you ignore the fact that he is a complete dick.”

  “Give him a chance,” Beckett said. “He’s just trying to show his dominance. He’ll calm down.” Beckett still believed that. He loved Matteo like a brother. And it took time to learn the ropes of being an alpha.

  “It was so much better when you were the leader,” Finch said. “Sure it was embarrassing having an alpha with ears the size of dinner plates but still.”

  “He’s not coming back,” Sander said. “Once a bear gets a taste of honey, he won’t go back to eating pine cones.”

  “That’s the worst analogy I’ve ever heard,” Keene said. Sander threw his scrubbing brush at him.

  Matteo entered the hangar and the guys went silent. They turned back to their tasks, scrubbing the floors or clearing the cobwebs from the ceiling.

  “I told you I wanted this spotless before I came back,” Matteo said. “What have you guys been doing all day? Jerking each other off?”

  “Funny how your mind goes to that image immediately,” Ellis said. Keene snickered.

  Matteo ignored them. “So your ingenious leader got us a brand new plane even though the last careless alpha left the crew bank account almost empty.”

  “You got a new plane?” Finch asked.

  “I did,” Matteo said, strutting around the hangar. “A brand new Casa CN 235.”

  “How did you do that?” Sander asked.

  “I got us contracts in exchange for a plane. We’ll have to do an extra odd job here and there.”

  Beckett stepped forward. “Contracts with who?”

  “McCoy Industries.”

  The hangar exploded in disagreement. “What?” Keene yelled.

  “How could you do that?” Ellis asked.

  McCoy Industries was the company that financed the Flint Crew and was destroying the habitat of the area. They would be working for the company that they hated and would essentially be coworkers of their enemies, the Flint Crew.

  “Cancel it,” Beckett said, staring Matteo down.

  “Absolutely not,” he yelled. “We have no aircraft and no money. We can’t be smokejumpers with no plane. I’m the alpha and I make the decisions.”

  “You’re half the alpha that my brother was,” Ellis said.

  Matteo slapped him across the face.

  Beckett stepped forward squeezing his fists. His bear was on the verge of ripping out of him. His body was trembling as he held him in.

  No more of this.

  He was the true alpha.

  He could have both. Amanda and his rightful position.

  Amanda believed that he could do it and now he did too.

  “I challenge you,” Beckett yelled, as brown hairs sprouted from his skin. His jaw clenched as his bones pulled apart, separating at the joints. His fingertips ignited in searing pain as claws ripped out of the tips. Snaps and crunches echoed through the hangar as his bones snapped and healed, larger and thicker.

  He caught a glimpse of Matteo through watery eyes. He was transforming as well.

  Beckett burst into a full size Kodiak bear. The pain subsided. Only his rage remained.

  Adrenaline raced through his veins as he roared and snarled at Matteo. His bear wanted blood. He wanted vengeance for the embarrassment of being forced into submission. He wanted to force his dominance on everything and everyone.

  The guys stepped back against the wall as the two bears stared each other down.

  Matteo stood on two legs and growled in a show of intimidation. Beckett’s bear wasn’t interested in intimidation. He only wanted blood.

  He was furious and overflowing with adrenaline. Matteo stood on his two hind legs and roared, threatening Beckett with his long, pointed teeth. His thunderous growl echoed in the tin walled hangar.

  Beckett sprinted towards him and slammed his front paws into Matteo’s chest. Matteo flew backwards under the tremendous weight of the angry Kodiak bear and fell onto the canoe, shattering it to pieces.

  Beckett landed on top of him, lashing out with his teeth and swatting with his claws. Beckett drew first blood, slicing Matteo’s cheek. Matteo clamped onto Beckett’s ear and held it as he tried to kick Beckett off with his hind legs.

  Beckett chomped down on Matteo’s arm and he howled in pain, releasing his ear. Beckett stepped back and Matteo jumped to his feet.

  There was fear in Matteo’s eyes. Beckett snarled and circled him. He was the true alpha. He knew he had him.

  Beckett pounced forward and slammed into the grizzly bear. They crashed into the
tin wall and the whole hangar shook and creaked.

  Both apex predators were breathing heavily and fighting with everything they had. Amanda flashed into Beckett’s mind and he got a burst of power. He drove Matteo into the floor with his huge paws and landed on top of him.

  Matteo looked in his eyes and Beckett could tell he was giving up. He lowered his paws, went limp and exposed his neck. Beckett took his neck in his mouth as a show of dominance, only grazing his neck with his teeth.

  The guys watching gasped in relief as Beckett climbed off him. He was the true alpha.

  He had won.

  Ellis handed Beckett his clothes after he transformed back into his human form. “Thanks Beckett,” Ellis said. “I’m so happy you’re back.”

  Matteo gathered his shredded clothes off the ground and headed for the door.

  Beckett ran over to meet him. “Wait, Matteo.”

  Matteo stopped at the door, staring out at the darkening sky.

  “I would like it if you would be my number two again,” Beckett said.

  Matteo sighed, staring ahead. “I’m leaving.”

  “Why?” Beckett asked, his pulse speeding up.

  “I’ve humiliated myself. I can’t stay here.”

  Beckett stepped in front of him. Matteo lowered his eyes. “That’s ridiculous. We’re brothers Matteo. Please. I need you as my second.”

  Matteo looked up, his eyes glistening.

  “I want you to stay,” Beckett pleaded. “Everybody wants you to stay.”

  “I’m sorry Beckett,” he said, and gave him a hug. “You are the true alpha. I just don’t belong here anymore.” He walked past him into the night.

  Beckett lowered his head and watched his brother leave with a heaviness filling his body.

  eight

  Amanda sat at the picnic table with Alexi, watching the guys tease each other as they cooked lunch.

  Keene was sitting on Quint’s chest because he made fun of his enormous size. “I can’t breathe,” Quint said through labored breaths. “Get this were-elephant off me.”