by V. Vaughn
It was the trembling in his arms that reminded her that he was still recovering from having been chilled to the point of death. She pushed gently at Zeke’s chest. “Put me down,” she said softly. “We can’t do this.”
Zeke reluctantly set Jenna on her feet, but he kept her in the circle of his arms. “Why not?” he growled. “Are you married?
She was blushing rosily, but also shaking her head. “Not married. Not anything. But you nearly died last night. You should be resting.” She pulled out of his arms. “I don’t want to take advantage of you.”
Well, that was a new one, Zeke thought as he lay down on the couch as he had been directed.
Jen opened her back door. The snow had blown higher and she couldn’t even see daylight. She tested it with a cautious finger. It was still soft. Good. She needed to clear a path before dark in case it froze solid overnight and she got trapped indoors.
Plus the cabin was warmer than usual, even though she was barely feeding the stove. She figured the snow was insulating it on four sides. Five if you counted the roof. Not a good sign.
Her roof was steeply pitched to shed snow and rain. But if the wind had blown snow against her walls in a heavy bank, there might be no place for the snow to fall off the roof. The cabin could become one gigantic mound of snow. If her chimney got blocked, carbon monoxide poisoning would follow. She needed to go have a look. And she best do it in bear.
She came out of the kitchen to check on Zeke. He was sitting up on the couch awake and scowling after his nap.
“I’m going to go look at the roof,” she said. “And maybe see if I can clear the area in front of the back door before dark. I shouldn’t be long.”
“Let me see.” His sullen expression vanished.
He strode into the kitchen and looked around. The window over the sink was blank with snow, but the room felt welcoming for all that it was a bit dark. White appliances gleamed and the pale grey counters were immaculate and empty, except for the coffeemaker and a big red stand mixer.
A door stood open and he poked his head into a big lean-to. On one side here was a narrow door with a frosted glass panel inset into its length. A couple of coats and two huge towels hung on hooks beside the door. On the other wall a tall stack of cord wood was neatly arranged. The door at the end stood open to reveal a wall of snow. He looked around the lean-to. Two pairs of Jenna-sized boots sat tidily on a boot tray next to his muddy Army issue. A broom and a shovel hung beside the wood.
“How do you plan to tackle this?” he asked, testing the snow with the broom handle. It sank in all the way to the bristles.
“I’ll take bear,” she said casually, “And dig my way up and climb on the roof.”
“You won’t get far,” he predicted. “Snow’s too soft. You’ll sink.”
She laughed. “It’ll be messy,” she agreed grinning. “But I need the exercise. You go take another nap.”
Another nap. She did think he was a helpless invalid. Zeke shook his head. “I don’t think so, sweetheart.”
He sounded exactly like Joey or Lenny. One hundred percent take charge, alpha male. Determined to look out for the little lady.
“What do you suggest?” Jen asked narrowing her eyes.
“I’ll come with you. I feel fine now,” he added seeing her objections in her face.
“In bear?” It was her turn to be dubious. “How heavy is your bear?”
Zeke shrugged. “How would I know? How heavy are black bears?”
Jen stared at him. He didn’t know how heavy he was? Like all her cousins, between first change and full grown, she had weighed herself a hundred times on the scale at the Enright lumber yard. She knew exactly what her bear weighed. Three hundred and twenty pounds. Ten pounds heavier than Jo’s. Not that they were competitive. Well, okay, they were competitive.
“You go back in the sitting room. I need the lean-to to take bear,” she shooed him with her hands.
Zeke sat on the couch listening to the rustling noises as Jenna took off her clothes. He imagined her folding them neatly and standing there in her pink and white skin. His woody stiffened even more at the thought of those ripe hips and gorgeous breasts. His mouth watered.
When he thought she must be done he went out to the kitchen unwinding his fluffy sarong. The wall of snow had a ragged bear sized hole in it. He looked around. He would never fit through the doorway in bear. Ah well. He stripped and hung his socks and sweater on the hook and crouched naked inside the tunnel Jen had made.
His change was slow and he was frozen by the time he had taken bear completely. He stretched his big muscular limbs and set off slowly after Jen, widening the tunnel until he came to where she had burrowed into daylight. He shook snow off his heavy coat and, in the long shadows cast by the setting sun, looked around at a winter wonderland.
Jen’s cabin sat in a small clearing surrounded by huge Douglas firs. They were laden with snow and more was falling. The wind had sculpted the snow into a gentle mound right over her house. Jen was leaping about, sinking down and leaping up in a great bound — as if it were all a great game.
Females.
Zeke turned back to the tunnel he had widened and used his great forepaws to take off the top of the tunnel. He no longer felt the pain of his transformation nor the cold. Next thing was to see if he could clear the cabin windows. A big object flew through the air and landed beside him making a deep hole. Jen’s black face stuck out and her golden muzzle opened and she whuffed.
Was she hurt? He moved towards her and she scrambled out and galloped up the slope of the snow bank to the roof. She shoved at the snow on the roof ridge and she and a swathe of snow flew down the roof and made another hole. Grey cedar shakes showed through a layer of shiny ice dusted with snow.
Her playful game quickly cleared the back slope of the roof. Zeke’s path filled up again with the snow she dumped off on it. He watched her in mixed irritation and bemusement. He didn’t think he should join her. Would her roof take the weight of a male Black? She wouldn’t thank him for falling through. He set himself to clearing the path to her back door once more.
Jen was having fun. A task that would have been a grueling nightmare for a human female wielding a shovel, was a snap with the strength of her bear. So long as she had the snow bank to catch her, she could play this game all day. Sadly her efforts to unblock the chimney made the snow start to slide down on its own and the last of it shot off and left her cedar shakes mostly bare on both sides. Game over.
Zeke was carving out holes where her windows were. Good luck with that. The wind would likely fill them up again. Filled with the lighthearted ebullience that being in bear always induced in her, Jenna began to cavort in the clearing in front of her cabin. Of course she sank deep. But swimming in the snow was the bear equivalent of making snow angels. It was fun, fun, fun.
Zeke doggedly moved snow from the front door, trying to ignore the playful bear prancing in the snow. He returned to the back of the cabin when the sitting room windows were cleared. The extra snow from the roof had made it harder to expose the rear windows and his disgruntlement increased. He began to scoop the snow away from the kitchen window.
Jen bumped his rear with her own flank and took him by surprise. He turned to glare at her. Jen was darker than Laura’s cinnamon colored bear. A bit bigger too. Her muzzle was a sort of golden bronze color and she had two mischievous eye spots the same color.
She looked lovely and smelled better. He had never been aroused by a female in bear before. She blinked at him and her mouth opened in a husky moan. She shook her head and snow flew, revealing her round gold-tipped ears. She was a beauty. She ran off and began to turn somersaults in the deep snow.
While he stood glowering, a snowball the size of a small boulder smacked his rump and darted off. Clumps of snow slid off Jen’s back and she looked flirtatiously over her plump black shoulder, whuffed, and took off.
Zeke was galloping towards her before he thought. Jen looked back at him coyly, t
ossed her head, and bounced. Then she ran headlong into the woods. He was in hot pursuit before he knew what he was about. She galloped amongst the huge trunks, ducking under branches bent low with snow. He followed as if she had him on a towline.
Her scent was heavy in the damp air and her romp seemed to be intensifying its ambrosial appeal. He wanted that female, and he was going to catch her. He could see her deep footprints in the snow around the trees. He could smell her, but he couldn’t see her. She dropped down on his back from a tree branch. Great gobs of wet snow pelted him as she cannoned off him and headed deeper into the forest.
She was smaller than he was, and more nimble. She scaled a slender pine and panted open mouthed at him, enjoying his confusion. He bumped the tree with his hind quarters and she made a deep moaning noise and pounced on his head. In moments he was wrestling with her, legs tangled, bodies rolling until their shaggy black fur was patched with wet snow and pine needles.
He was bigger so he won. Jenna’s body went limp beneath him and he placed his muzzle over her neck and inhaled her delicious scent. Peace and happiness flooded him. It seemed an entirely new feeling. He licked her fur the wrong way and she wriggled in protest before subsiding with one of her merry whuffs. He backed off of her and she stood up and led the way as sedately as a matron on her way to church.
Now why wasn’t he deceived by this apparent docility? Because he wasn’t. He was watching to see what his joyful mate was up to. Nonetheless, he was surprised when she swung her plump hindquarters into a snow laden tree and the boughs dumped their heavy wet load onto his head. She took off again, forelegs stretching and back legs pushing powerfully.
He caught up to her and pounced. They began to roll and wrestle again in the deep snow. Jenna shoved at him with all her strength and forced him on his back. Even though he was restraining himself, it was easy to displace her and pin her down. Before long, he stood over her prone body resting his deep belly on her spine.
They lay like that together for a long while. Both panting happily. Each enjoying the presence of the other. Zeke licked her head and let her up. He had to or he would be doing something unseemly. Jenna’s eyes seemed to mock him under her golden eye spots as she cocked her head at him before she scuttled off again.
10
Zeke was past thinking. His vision had narrowed to the enticing black rump of the plump female running from him. He was bigger. He could catch her. But she was fast and he wasn’t gaining on her as he should have been.
Jen looked back, exhilarated by the chase. Zeke looked wet and scruffy and dogged. She had forgotten his ordeal! He should be indoors, keeping warm and replacing his fluids. Not outdoors frolicking in the snow. She doubled back and raced to the path he had made to her back door.
His little female was running for the cabin. Zeke turned and slid sideways. By the time he righted himself, his she-bear was shaking a cloud of snow from her hide. In the blink of an eye she became a six foot Amazon with the most beautiful, rosy ass he had ever seen. She rushed laughing into the lean-to and slammed the door behind her.
Jen was standing in the shower room off the lean-to when she heard Zeke come in. She concentrated on soaping up and waited for him to leave. She was breathing hard and fizzing with the cocktail of hormones created by her shift and by being around Zeke. She wanted him to enter. To choose for her. No matter how stupid it would be to risk having more sex with this stranger.
Belatedly, Zeke realized that the frosted glass door led to a shower. He could hear water running. He looked down at himself. His legs were shaking. His chest was matted with sweat. He was all in. But his stupid cock was straining for its lodestar. His angel was naked in there. Naked. Water running down the slopes of those fantastic breasts and trickling between the twin globes of her round, bouncy ass.
He slid the door open and as it recessed into the wall he saw her, rosy, naked and lovely. Her braid was twisted up and held by a stick. She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled like Circe or Lorelei or some mythical enchantress. He didn’t think. He acted.
He grabbed her and spun her so she rested against his trembling body. His erection was an iron spike between their bodies, pressing hard against his bulging abs and into her soft belly. He bent and took her mouth with his.
She tasted of spice and woman, of home and peace and paradise. He tangled his tongue with hers and swept into the secret recesses seeking treasure. She responded tentatively, but then her hands tightened on his biceps and she kissed him back as if she too were starved.
He ran his hand wonderingly from her shoulders to her bottom, squeezing and caressing her abundant, silky flesh, He grabbed her bottom in both hands and lifted her so her mound pressed against his rock hard cock. She gave a little shimmy and squirmed closer. His fingers slipped between her magnificent cheeks and tested her slit. She was slick.
He didn’t stop kissing her, but he hoisted her just a tad higher. She clutched him with powerful thighs and he staggered a little. He steadied them both by setting her against the tiles of the shower room as he thrust into her. Her sheath was hot and wet and little muscles held him like a vise. He pulled out and returned home. She tightened her legs around him and pressed her heels into his butt.
The rocked together like that until the rippling of her vagina sucked the last drop of semen from his enervated trouser snake. He was shaking as if he had run the marathon when he let her slide down his body to stand gazing open mouthed at him.
Jenna covered her mouth with a hand that shook. Zeke was looking a lot the worse for wear. He was white and he shivered as if he was standing naked in a gale. As he sort of was. The water had run cold and he was wet and nude. She fetched the bath towels and handed him one. He stood holding it looking dazed. Jenna began to dry him and he snapped out of his stupor and began to blot water from his face.
“Turn around.” she said and dried his back, marveling at the great slabs of heavy muscle. No wonder Uncle Pierre’s sweater was tight on him. Zeke’s barrel chest was supplemented by thick layers of muscle front and back. And so was his hard ass. This time she couldn’t even pretend to a professional indifference. She knelt to dry his massive thighs and calves.
“Okay,” she said briskly. “Let’s get you dry and dressed.” She pushed him into the lean-to and handed him his clothes and the throw and towed him into the warm kitchen. Zeke went passively and sat obediently on her kitchen stool while she pulled his sweater over his head and dried his feet off. She took the socks from his unresisting hands and pulled them on.
“Up,” she said and led him into her bedroom. She pushed him and he sat down on the bed. “Lie down.” His eyes were closed before his head hit the pillow. Jen covered him up and left. She was naked and getting cold herself.
She had done it again. She had purely lost her mind over this bear. Zeke was addling her brain. Not seducing her — he was too surly and stunned for seduction. No it was his scent that kept enticing her and telling her bear he was her one and only mate.
He smelled dependable. And like sex itself. She felt like singing. And then she felt like crying. She was acting like a tween with her first crush. Except that she had twice danced the dirty rumba with this potent shifter. This was no crush. This was mate lust.
She would be coming up pregnant next. No one knew better than she did just how very fertile the women in her family were. And she didn’t even know if Zeke was mated with someone else. Bears tended to be hyper-loyal, but Zeke wasn’t himself. And even bears would grab a willing piece of ass if they were offered it. And she had offered herself.
She was still excited by the episode in the shower room. Geez, there hadn’t even been any foreplay. Just wham, bam, thank you ma’am. But she had come just the same. Just the feel of that long, thick love rod inside her had catapulted her into bliss. By the time they were exploding together her stupid heart had felt as if they were truly bonded.
How could she be in love with a guy she knew so little about? What reason did she have to think
he was the bear of her dreams and not a fricking nightmare? The morose son-of-a-bear could be an ax-murderer for all she knew and she was spinning fantasies of babies and happy ever after. She needed a reality check.
And it wasn’t as if she wasn’t the condom queen. She had a lifetime supply for handing out to hormone struck teenagers and new mothers. So she could have exercised a modicum of caution, if she wasn’t too busy acting like a lust-for-brains sow-in-season.
Not that taking advantage of a guy who was as good as her patient wasn’t bad enough. Nurses didn’t diddle their charges. Not even if they were really, really eager. Like as not, when he recovered, Zeke would be horrified at their hookups, and she would be doing the walk of shame alone when her jeans wouldn’t zip.
And she would have no one to blame but herself if she wound up with a trio of shifter cubs to raise all by her lonesome.
Sadly, her lecture fell on ears as deaf as any she had ever met. Truly she was channeling her inner adolescent. And just like any willful teen, she was surely going to come to grief.
11
The ruined grey-beige urban landscape was even more treacherous than it appeared, but the faces of his team were resolute. Zeke examined each in turn, and in turn each melted and deformed into the bloody mask of violent death. Mouths opened in silent shrieks to display broken teeth or worse.
Zeke hoisted his rocket launcher to his shoulder and fired into the broken concrete box where the assassins were holed up. The house exploded and debris rained down.
Jenna was shaking him and calling his name in a firm but comforting voice. He sat up. His hair and chest were running with sweat. He pulled up his knees and rested his head against them.
