by Leela Ash
“Arlo?” she called again. But she knew that she was alone in the house; he was gone.
She made her way quickly back to the bedroom and looked out the doors again. She slid them open slowly and stepped out into the night. It was chilly out there but she still felt warmed through and she was about to turn and begin to walk back toward the couch and fire pit where they had started their evening when she heard the sound of branches snapping in the woodland behind her.
She froze and turned around slowly. Afraid of what may be lurking. She was sure that she could hear grunting and the sound of growls, and it was with horror that, when she turned and peered into the darkness behind her, she saw the outline of a big hulking beast. It was so big and covered in fur that as it slammed its way toward her, she almost fainted with fright.
“No!” she screamed as she held out her hand as if that in any way could defend her.
The bear was so big and powerful, the closer it came the more the deck bowed beneath its weight.
Poppy tried to push herself backward, to make it back to the doorway and inside, but she was so frightened it was as if she was frozen to the spot. She closed her eyes tightly and covered her ears. She knew that this was it, there was no way she could outrun or get away from it. She was doomed.
She thought of her mother and of how she knew that she would barely care… But then she thought of James and of what it would mean for him to lose his older sister. They had only really ever had each other, and now Poppy was going to go and get herself killed in the mountains by a grizzly bear. Even after Arlo had warned her of the dangers.
She peeked out from between her fingertips and the bear was still right in front of her. She could smell the hot stink of its breath and it opened its jaws wide and wailed up into the night’s sky.
Even though she couldn’t move her eyes from the beast in front of her, Poppy was aware of some movement out in the woodland behind it. She saw the flash of something darting quickly between the trees, and in an instant, the bear in front of her stopped and turned around as if it had sensed it too.
Poppy was cowering on the deck, right next to the wall of the cabin, her heart pounding and her palms sweating, when, suddenly, Arlo emerged from the forest, completely naked and full of rage.
The bear and he squared up to each other and Poppy’s mind was racing. Was any of this even real? Or was it just some crazy nightmare?
“Arlo!” she screamed, but he was completely focused on the bear. He flexed his huge arms hungrily and bared his own teeth and Poppy suddenly saw something come over him that was both arousing and terrifying.
The bear that had cornered her whimpered and lowered its head, it moved backward slightly, closer to Poppy, but with its shoulders hunched and its nose touching the ground.
Arlo snarled again and when Poppy looked back at him, she couldn’t believe her eyes. The man who she had just spent the past several hours exploring every inch of was changing before her. His demeanor was fiercer and his eyes were burning with power. She cowered as she watched him snarl and take another heaving step closer, but this time, she could tell that something incredible was about to happen.
He belted out a growl so loud it tore through the night and was so fierce it blew the hair back from her face from over ten feet away. He hunched his shoulders and his arms bulged with exertion, and in an instant, his skin seemed to rip open as a dark fur sprang up in its place.
Poppy rubbed her eyes. Could this really be happening? What the fuck was she witnessing?
Before her very eyes, Arlo turned from the handsome man she had got to know into a big, beast of a grizzly bear. His paws were so big and full of claws that they could have torn her apart.
She wanted to scream but she was frozen. She wanted to run but her legs and feet were heavy with fear.
The bear in front of her was also cowering and as Arlo moved forward quickly and lunged himself at the smaller bear, there was a flash of fangs, fur, and claws as the pair began to fight.
Poppy tried to hide, but she was right there and she saw it all. Arlo was so big compared to the other bear, he was like no animal she had ever seen, and as he drove the smaller bear back into the woods, Poppy honestly couldn’t believe what was happening.
She rubbed her eyes and breathed in deeply.
“This can’t be real,” she whispered to herself. But then she was suddenly aware that the Arlo bear was back, and he was right in front of her.
When she looked up and saw him right there, she looked into his eyes and she knew that it was definitely him. The man she had fallen for, he could shape shift and now it all made sense. This was why he was so hot to the touch, why he seemed so different and mysterious, why he had been so secretive and cryptic.
She tried not to cry and to instead slow her breathing. The bear moved backward and seemed to heave in the moonlight and then, in an instant, it started to convulse and shudder as the fur began to disappear and the tanned, thick muscles returned in their place.
Arlo stood there, back in his human form, and to Poppy, he had never looked better. He looked so alive and so powerful. It was intoxicating.
“You’re my woman now,” he said with a pant. “And I’ll protect you no matter what.” His chest was heaving with exertion and Poppy could feel the bond between them. Something had most definitely changed.
“What are you?” she whispered, even though now she really did know.
“I’m Arlo,” he whispered. “And like I told you, it’s going to take a very special and understanding woman to love me.”
And even though there was a sadness in his eyes, Poppy knew it would all be okay. Whether he knew it yet or not, she was most certainly that woman.
9.
Lost Creek was gearing up for its summer season and the town was already bursting at the seams with new arrivals. Since Poppy had arrived in town all those months before, she never could have imagined that she never would have ended up leaving.
She wiped down the countertop in Arlo’s bar. Since she had settled in Lost Creek with her new man, a few changes had been made to keep up with the trade and demand. A diner just wasn’t cutting it anymore, the tourists in the town wanted a sports bar, and Arlo’s was the perfect venue to give it to them.
Willow hummed a tune as she twirled her curly black hair around her long, manicured finger and blew a big pink bubble with her gum. The girls had become close over the months and it was good for Poppy to have a friend there. It had helped the place feel more like home.
When her family had left, she promised James that she would call him regularly, and she had done so several times a week. He was fine back at home with her parents and was gearing up to make his own escape soon. He had his sights on college or travel, and Poppy knew that whatever he chose, he would end up in the right place. The place destined for him… Just like she had.
After learning of Arlo’s secret, Poppy knew that she could never walk away from him. He had saved her life that night at his house, he had known that she was in trouble and he had come running. There really were bears in the woods around Lost Creek, but there was something more too… And she was still learning all about it with each passing day.
She’d heard whispers from Willow that Arlo wasn’t the only bear shifter. That his close friends and some of the other original settling families had powers too, and that although it was a secret that was concealed from the majority of residents in the town, they were also being slowly discovered.
“We have to help protect them,” Willow had said. “Both the bears and the wolves.”
From what she had managed to piece together, that is what Arlo had meant by the town being divided. Two packs were in charge of Lost Creek, and tensions were rising.
“Everything will be fine,” Arlo had assured her one night. “There’s nothing to worry about for you here.”
He had kissed her and she knew that he would never lie. They were together now. They were each other’s other half and each day, although it brou
ght its challenges, Poppy was more than grateful that she had found herself in such a unique and happy position after so many years of unrest.
She and Arlo were so well suited, and she thanked her lucky stars every day that she had been fortunate enough to meet him.
As she started to stack the glasses behind the bar, the front door swung open and his huge, broad frame stepped forward, blocking out the natural light. As always, she could feel his eyes on her and it set off the butterflies in her belly. They all flapped their wings in unison and she had grown to enjoy the feeling. It had never left her and she hoped that it never would. She liked the nervous sensation that he gave her, it drove her on and kept her hot for him.
He swept her up in his big arms and kissed her hard on the mouth. Now that she had seen what this man had inside of him, the beast that he managed to conceal but could unleash at any given moment, Poppy would always be on her toes, and she liked it that way. It turned her on and made her heart race.
She nuzzled into his neck and thought of how far they had come in such a short space of time and she realized how true it was when people said that everything could change in a day.
It really could…
And for Poppy, it had changed in the most perfect and happiest of ways. She had finally found where she was supposed to be, and she was more than excited about her future…
THE END
The Lost Creek story continues with SCAR
Babies for the Bear
Cynthia Wilde
Copyright ©2015 by Cynthia Wilde. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
Chapter 1
Lois was on her way back to Barrow. She had been unable to take off from work to travel the previous summer, marking the first year of her life to miss the majestic views of Alaska. Now she stood looking out from the boat once again, feeling warm nostalgia for the summers spent in that tiny town on the Arctic Ocean. Her parents had brought her each year to see the whales. Her mother was a marine biologist, who loved sharing the mystery of the sea with her daughter, and her father was the doting spouse, there at her mother’s beck and call for whatever she needed. Lois closed her eyes and felt for a moment as if they were still there with her. It had been 5 years since her parents had been lost in a car accident. Barrow was all she had left of them.
Her eyes adjusted to the reflecting sun and her heart soared as she took in the small town from a distance. Coming here was like coming home. She still rented the same room at the boarding house where her family had always stayed together, ate at the same restaurants, and haunted the same local hangouts. Her life had been so upside down for the last few years that the familiar had become a rare and precious thing. She had been on edge for a month, waiting for the trip. The laboratory where she conducted research at home had been growing smaller by the day, and once the weather was warm enough for traveling north she was more than ready to go.
There was still about twenty minutes from the dock and Lois spent the time repacking the few things that she had pulled out of one of her bags. She hadn’t brought much considering her plan to stay on for at least three months, so she was able to carry all of her things off the boat on her own. She walked two blocks to an old garage where she paid to keep her truck and visited with the owner, Old Merl, before she took off to the boarding house on the other side of town. Burrow was quaint; she loved everything about its rugged, small town charm.
Lois parked her truck and walked toward an old two-story house.
An older woman hurried out onto the porch, opening her arms toward her. “Oh! You’re finally here! I heard there’s a terrible storm coming and I was afraid you would get caught in Ketchikan.”
Lois set her bags on the ground to embrace the nearest likeness to a mother she had left in the world. It was as if this woman had been placed in her life long ago for a future that had already been set in stone.
They walked into the old house together and the familiarity enveloped her. It was exactly like it had always been. Her hand softly ran over the back of one of the couches. “It never changes. That’s why I love it here so much, Miss Beth.” Lois was looking around, soaking up the memories that hung in the air, thick as the scent of the large spruce beams that met overhead in the homey living room. “Do you have a lot of visitors right now?”
“Oh just you and one other, Jeffrey, he’s in town for some hunting I think. You know how those men are, they get all riled up to kill something with a gun. He is kinda cute, maybe you two will hit it off…” Beth turned away slightly, trying to stay casual.
Lois raised her eyebrows in amusement. “I doubt that,” she smiled dryly. “And how do you know I’m single?”
“’Cause I know. You don’t have that glow about you yet, but just wait, it will come in time.” The older woman thought herself something of a matchmaker, and though Lois knew Beth’s successes had been due to the miniscule population of Barrow providing little opportunity for ideal prospects, she wanted to believe her. At twenty-two, she had yet to be in a substantial relationship that went beyond a few dates and awkward kisses. It was long past time for her to get serious, but she found it hard to get close to many people.
“We’ll see, I guess. When it happens, it happens,” she resolved out loud.
“That sounds well and good dear, but sometimes you gotta get out there and take what you want. The hell with trying to wait for it to fall in your lap, go find it.”
Lois was surprised by the advice, but more surprised by the gumption in Beth’s expression. She considered the last few men she had written off after hardly taking time to know them. She weakly attempted to reassure herself that they hadn’t been worth her time. She could keep an open mind without changing what she wanted in a man, after all. He was out there somewhere, but she was becoming impatient.
“What are you thinking about, dear? You’ve got the strangest look on your face,” Beth interrupted her thoughts.
Lois blushed and started up the stairs towards her room. She knew it would already be ready for her, probably had been for a week. “Nothing, just my love life,” she laughed absently, “Maybe you’re right, Miss Beth. I need to get out more, and I will, after I get back home this fall. You know there aren’t very many men out here, even at this time of year.”
“You never know,” said Beth with a twinkle in her eye.
Lois nodded and promised to be down in a bit for dinner after she cleaned up. She felt tired and dirty from an entire day of travel. She had ended up sleeping in an airport during a storm in Chicago that delayed her flight, and a shower was in order. As she climbed into the relaxing steamy water, her thoughts were still on her non-existent love life and the older woman’s words. It sounded like something her mother would have said. Lois had never truly imagined allowing someone beyond the barriers she had placed between herself and the men she knew in the past. She realized the only thing that held her back from new experiences was fear of the unknown. Looking down at her body, slick with water and suds, she wondered what a man would think of her if she were indeed to open herself up to knowing someone on a deeper level.
The hot water was a blessing and she was soon feeling human again. Throwing her shoulder-length hair in a bun, she tiptoed down the hall with a towel wrapped around her. There was a tall man in the hallway next to her open door and she could tell he was looking in. He hadn’t noticed her and she almost backed into the bathroom, but she did not want to put the old clothes that reeked of fish back on after her shower.
“Excuse me, I need to get through,” she said hurriedly. The man turned around and his blue eyes held hers for several moments before the words seemed to reach his brain enough for him to move. She thanked him and walked into her room, shutting the
door softly behind her. Her heart thudded as she looked down at herself and was thankful that no part of her had been sticking out. The towel certainly exposed a bit more than she would have liked for a first meeting.
As she was getting dressed, she couldn’t help but think about the man in the hallway. She tried to remember if Beth had given her his name, then she recalled it was Jeffrey. He was blonde and blue eyed, with broad shoulders, surely over six feet tall. It was the way in which he had looked at her and his set jaw that caused her to think about it for the rest of the evening. She really did not care for hunting, but with Beth’s words in mind, she figured she could go down to dinner with an open mind.
Beth’s boarding house was one of the best places in town to get food. Many wanted her to turn the old place into a restaurant, but she insisted if you wanted her food, you would just have to stay the night and have dinner. It was one of Lois’ favorite times as she wasn’t much of a cook herself and had mainly subsisted on take-out in the city for the past year. There was also more than a passing thought of seeing Jeffrey again, and at least the next time, she would have some clothes on.
Chapter 2
Lois finally made her way downstairs and the aroma of a home cooked meal immediately greeted her as she entered the dining room. Beth had made her favorite, as she always did on the first evening of a summer trip.
“Smells great, Miss Beth!” she chirped gleefully. Taking a seat, she smiled over at one of the men already seated at the small table. He introduced himself and Lois shook his hand. She nodded to Jeffrey, who was sitting a few chairs down the length of the table. She was unsure whether a proper introduction was even necessary at this point considering their unofficial meeting in the hall only minutes before.
The three of them quickly fell into conversation about some of the animal sightings around the hotel, and Jeffrey’s face lit up with excitement as he told them about the polar bears he had spotted a few days before.
