Stone Bear: Guardian (A BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance) (Stone Bears Book 3)

by Amelia Jade

  “We’re just getting on a plane. Just like that. They’re charging everything to you, and that’s it? I mean, how is everyone okay with that?”

  He took his time responding. They flopped down into their seats before he said anything, once again enjoying the extra room and comfort of first class.

  “We live on the same planet as humans. But we’re not human, Karlie. We’re shifters. We act differently, we have different rules, and different values.” He looked at her strangely, but she ignored it.

  “I know,” she said forcefully. “But it’s just crazy that they accepted your word for it, and that was that.”

  He shrugged. “They get a lot of money from cases like this. I’m sure the police and the hotel will overbill by fifty percent. For a budget-strapped department and a money-hungry hotel owner, that’s more than enough incentive to just let it go. Thankfully Carlos didn’t end up on the sidewalk. I didn’t realize the building narrowed at the top, but it did, giving him a ledge to land on. Otherwise it might not have been that easy.”

  Raphael abruptly stopped talking and looked pensive for a moment. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

  “What?” she asked, worried. “What’s wrong?”

  He looked at her longingly, his blue eyes like pools of clean water. They promised her the world. Until he looked away.

  “Nothing,” he said, just a bit too quickly. “It’s all good. We’re finally heading back to Genesis Valley. Just this flight and a four-hour car ride, and we’re there. Mission accomplished.”

  He promptly closed his eyes, acting like he was asleep. But after spending every waking and sleeping moment with him for the past few days, Karlie had a good idea of when he was faking it, and when he was truly asleep.

  What had gotten into him all of a sudden to freak him out like that?

  The thought wouldn’t go away, constantly nagging at her. It wasn’t the first time he had suddenly clammed up on her. She could think of several other instances of a sudden about-face in his attitude toward her. He would open up to a certain point, then all of a sudden would realize what he was doing, and completely reverse his course and go in the opposite direction. What was wrong with them talking about more than just the right then and there? They weren’t talking about a future between the two of them, though a part of her was definitely interested in doing so.

  So what was it?

  She continued to think about it as they taxied out on the runway, the plane’s big jet engines beginning to wind up, their low rumble increasing until it became a full-throated roar. The plane shuddered and all at once began to accelerate quickly down the tarmac. Through the window she could see the ground suddenly lift away as they became airborne, leaving the earth behind them.

  Was that it? Is he going to leave me behind once we get to the Valley, to his home? Something had to be waiting for him there that would make him become so distant. A sudden thought that it might be his mate that he had left behind shot through her mind, but she dismissed it. Raphael might be many things, but a lowlife like her father he was not. But what was it?

  Finally, she could contain it no longer.

  “Raphael,” she said softly.

  He grunted.

  “What’s wrong?”

  One eye popped upon, rotating until it fixed upon her. “What?” he asked in a dismissive tone, as if saying “Nothing’s wrong, why are you asking if it is?” Even though she knew something was wrong anyway. It was infuriating, and instead of causing her to give up, she pressed onward.

  “Don’t give me that shit. Anytime the future or life in Genesis Valley comes up, you all of a sudden clam up and become someone I’m not attracted to.” She shrugged. “What the hell?”

  It wasn’t the most polite method of trying to understand his thoughts and what was bothering him, but she was tired. Karlie hadn’t realized it at first, but the months upon months of living under constant supervision had left her exhausted. Some of her exhaustion had manifested physically. But much if it had taken its toll mentally. Living at the compound surrounded by such peace and beauty had toyed with her emotions. Knowing that such wilderness was so close, and yet be unable to truly appreciate it because of the invisible bars on her cage.

  After close to a year of that, she was beyond playing games. She wanted an answer, without any sugarcoating or bullshit. Her life had been thrown into turmoil ever since he appeared in her window, and she would be damned if his own emotional issues—whatever they were—would be allowed to affect her any longer.

  Beside her Raphael seemed to stir, and his muscles tensed.

  Karlie felt a knot of unease form in her stomach. Whatever it was, it was bad enough that it had him squirming in his seat. He doesn’t want to tell me, because whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it.

  Steeling her nerves, she moved in her seat until she could look directly at him. The stern glare she cast his way didn’t seem to help his situation, but she didn’t care. Obviously whatever he was telling her was something she should have known from the start, otherwise it wouldn’t be so difficult for him to tell her.

  “You have someone back home, don’t you?” she asked icily.

  Raphael’s eyes flew open as he sat up in his seat. “What?” he almost shouted, but managed to keep his voice down.

  “All this time, you’ve had another woman. That’s why you get so anxious talking about getting back to Genesis Valley and anything beyond the next few days. I should have known,” she said, sitting back in her seat, crossing her arms angrily. “You’re just like my father was.”

  “Karlie,” Raphael said, his voice dangerously calm. “I’m going to forgive you for that, because of everything you’ve been through.” His voice dropped even lower, sending a chill through her veins at how hard and threatening the next words came out. “But do not, ever, threaten my integrity like that again. Am I clear?”

  Sensing she had just made a grave mistake, Karlie felt her resistance to his anger crumble and fade. Nodding her head up and down jerkily, she met his stare. “What is it you’re not telling me then?” she pleaded. “Every time I think we’re getting closer to each other, that something may actually be happening between us, you clam up and practically run away. What else am I left to think?”

  Cold, calculating eyes stared back at her for a second. Then the iron-willed gates collapsed, baring his soul to her. For just an instant, she glimpsed the strength of his true feelings and the way he actually felt for her as his emotions shone brightly through eyes as blue as a clear summer sky.

  Karlie inhaled sharply, unaware that there was such depths to him. Her heart ached and she wanted nothing more than to reach out, to touch him, hold him. To let him know that it would be okay, that they would find a way to make it work. She knew it would be difficult; after all, they had only known each other for a few days.

  It was the content of those few days that mattered most to her. They had been forced to learn to rely on each other in ways that many other potential pairs would often never experience. Their personal space had been opened up to include the other due to necessity, but had remained open with desire and caring. It wasn’t a process considered normal when it came to relationship development, but then again, not much was considered normal in the shifter world either.

  She waited for Raphael to answer her question, to divulge to her just what piece of the puzzle she was missing. But the answer never came. He simply lay back in his seat, closed his eyes, and went to sleep. This time she could tell he wasn’t faking it either. The entire trip, he slept, leaving her there to worry.

  By the time she got into the car for the long ride to Genesis Valley, Karlie was so livid she was shaking.

  “Are you ever going to say anything to me?” she snapped. “Perhaps tell me why you’re being such a coward about all this?”

  It wasn’t quite the same as threatening his integrity, but it came pretty close. Karlie had expected to hear another speech from him, or to see Raphael lose his temper.
Instead, he sighed heavily, catching her off guard.

  “I don’t understand why you’re so eager to make this work,” he said. “You have to know that it’s not going to work out in the end. How could you not?” he asked sadly.

  She stared at him, flabbergasted. How could she be expected to know that it wouldn’t work? The only thing not working about it was him! She had been perfectly content to explore the budding relationship between them until he started closing himself off to her. So how could he insinuate that she was the one who should know better?

  Her shock, and the mental thoughts that followed, consumed the better part of the car ride as she explored every possible angle, trying to figure out what the hell he meant.

  “I give up,” she said in defeat as they passed a sign that read “Welcome to Genesis Valley.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She was surprised he answered. “I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about,” she said bluntly. “I’m so confused. Could you please, for once, just speak plainly, and lay out all the assumptions that you’re making as well as the ones you believe me to be making?”

  He glanced over at her, frowning. “Karlie,” he said gently. “I’m a bear shifter. I live to be perhaps one hundred and twenty, if I’m lucky. Longer than a human, yes. But that’s it.”

  “I know that,” she said angrily. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

  The sadness that forced its way forward, overwhelming his anger and guarded expression, was so powerful she felt tears well up in her own eyes simply by looking at him. Whatever it was, she realized it was eating him alive.

  He doesn’t want to do this either. The thought hit her like a thunderbolt. He wanted to be with her as well, but was forcing himself away for what he thought was her own good. What the hell does he know that I don’t?

  “How can you be okay with that?” he asked plaintively. “That has to be hard for you to deal with.”

  She frowned. “Why would that be hard?”

  Raphael slammed his hand into the steering wheel angrily. “Why wouldn’t it be hard? Can you really handle that?”

  She stared at him for a moment in frustrated anger before shouting at him. “What the hell are you talking about, Raphael? Explain yourself in plain terms right this fucking minute. No more ‘you should know’ or ‘how could you be okay with that?’ bullshit. Why the hell wouldn’t I?”

  His shoulders slumped. “Because, Karlie. How could you, a dragon shifter, be okay with mating to a man whose life is nothing but a flicker compared to how long you’ll live for?”

  Words failed her.

  So that was his problem this entire time?

  Chapter Fifteen

  Raphael

  His spirit sagged as the silence ran on. She had never considered that angle before, he knew it. For much of their journey together, Raphael had been torn between the two sides.

  His feelings for Karlie were more than just skin deep. Yes, he enjoyed having sex with her, he wasn’t going to deny that. But there was far more to it than that. She was emotionally, and spiritually very similar to him, in a way that complimented his personality. She would be the one to help him try new things, and to think about every problem from a different angle. He could go on for a long time about just what it was that made her so special to him, but it didn’t matter.

  Not when the other side of the coin was that she was a dragon shifter. He was scared Ferro would hurt him for falling in love with his granddaughter, but that was something he was willing to risk. Physical pain was not something he looked forward to, but for Karlie, he would endure whatever was necessary. It wasn’t his own pain that he worried about though, it was hers. She would live for millennia. Thousands of years, compared to his single solitary century with a few extra years thrown in for good luck. He could not, and would not, allow her to become so burdened by such a short-lived lover. It wasn’t fair to her.

  Beside him, Karlie began to make a noise. He instinctively took his foot off the gas of the truck and looked over at her, wondering if she was okay. To his shock, she was doing something completely strange for the moment.

  Karlie was laughing. It started off as an attempt to turn her laugh into a cough. But it grew. And grew. Before long, she was laughing hysterically, tears flowing down her face as she dissolved into a ball of howling laughter.

  At one point, she looked over at him, and the look on his face must have been amusing, because it set off another round.

  “What the hell is so funny about that?” he asked angrily, though in truth he was more hurt than he was angry at her.

  How dare she laugh at his feelings?

  Finally, sensing that her laughter was hurting him, Karlie managed to speak through her tears.

  “Raphael. You big, lovable imbecile. My mother was a human. And I’m female.”

  He stared at her for a moment, not understanding.

  Abruptly his jaw dropped as her meaning sunk home. He sharply pulled the truck over to the side of the road just as they neared the outskirts of Origin, the sole town in Genesis Valley.

  “Are you saying—”

  She nodded vigorously. “Yes, my silly savior, I’m not a dragon.”

  He stared ahead, stunned. Why had he never thought that before? In any of the shifter races, when a male bred with a human female, often only the male offspring carried shifter genes. The females would often have characteristics such as increased strength, a long lifespan, and faster-than-normal healing. None of it on the scale of a true shifter, but elevated above a human.

  “I am an idiot,” he said slowly, enunciating each word.

  “Is that why you’ve always been so hesitant to think past our arrival here?” she asked, her laughter turning to serious emotion.

  He nodded. “That, and the fact that your grandfather sort of threatened me if I tried anything with you.”

  Karlie frowned. “He threatened you?”

  Raphael shrugged. “Sort of. He said ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’ I always assumed that meant ‘Don’t fall in love with my dragon shifter of a granddaughter.’ So I tried my best not to, and when I did, I tried to hide it. Poorly, yes, but I had to try.”

  He watched as Karlie worked her jaw, flicking her tongue out over her lips as she tried to decide what to say. Then, in a very small voice, so soft he barely heard it, she spoke.

  “You…fell in love with me?”

  “Yes,” he replied without hesitation. “I did.”

  He expected several different responses after giving her the truthful answer of how he felt about her. One thing he did not expect was her to come flying across the center console, her lips hungrily searching for his as she all but attacked him with affection.

  Minutes later, they broke for air. “I take it you’re okay with that?” he asked wryly.

  She blushed furiously, then nodded. “Yes, yes I am. Do you know why?”

  “I have a hope, but I’d like to hear it from you,” he told her with a wink.

  Her hand swatted his shoulder gently before settling there to stroke back and forth. “I’m okay with it,” she said softly, “because somehow, throughout all this, I’ve fallen in love with you too.”

  He kissed her again then.

  Hard.

  ***

  “So what do we tell Ferro?” he asked, the truck engine starting up again.

  Karlie glanced up at him from where her head was resting on his shoulder. “What do you mean?”

  He frowned. “He seems like a good person, Karlie, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to be okay with you having fallen in love with a bear shifter. Especially not one of my particular ilk.”

  “Your ilk?” she asked. “What’s that supposed to mean?

  He sighed. “You know exactly what I mean. I’m not your friendly teddy bear. I have a job, and that requires me to do things that I’m not always happy with. Is he really going to want you exposed to the uglier side of life here in Genesis Valley?”

&n
bsp; Raphael expertly guided the truck off the main road and down a sloped curving road covered in gravel instead of concrete. He pulled up in front of a decent sized building adorned with a red neon sign that read The Tongue & Flame.

  “Well, this is it,” he said before Karlie had a chance to respond to his question.

  “Come on,” she told him, hopping out of the car. “We don’t have to tell him right away. He’ll just be happy to see me, and appreciative that you brought me out of there alive and in one piece.”

  Raphael felt his pulse quicken as she slipped an arm through the crook of his elbow. He knew he was supposed to take the lead, but right then, she was using that connection to pull him along while his nerves slowed him down.

  Her hand rested on one of the swinging doors that would lead them into the tavern that Ferro owned and operated.

  “He’s not going to hurt you,” she said with exasperation, and tugged him inside.

  The interior was brightly lit with new-style pot lighting. Modern comforts mixed with antique accents to create a décor that could instantly make anyone feel relaxed. It was a big, open room.

  To his left was a section of padded chairs. It was empty at the moment, but he knew it would be occupied soon. Straight ahead were two pool tables and several simple seating tables and high-backed chairs. Off in the back right-hand corner was another section of larger chairs, also devoid of bodies. It was odd not to see the two groups of shifters that normally frequented the place, but he knew they would be out helping to rebuild and repair the damage done to the town when Luthor had invaded it with his army of shifters.

  For now, there was just a lone figure behind the bar.

  “You’re not Ferro,” he said, a moment before recognizing the person. “Oh, hi Gwen. What are you doing here?”

  Gwen was the human mate of one of the Jade Crew shifters. In fact, it was she who had helped to remodel the bar after it had been destroyed in a fight between rival groups of shifters.

  “Raphael!” she said happily. As she came around the counter, he saw the way her shirt hugged tightly to her form.