Primal Obsession: BBW Polar Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance (Shadowlands Bear Shifters Book 3)

by Olivia Harp

She revved up the engine and bolted away, leaving Raiden to eat her dust.

  ***

  Raiden caught up with her and said “Follow me, crazy woman,” through a small radio comm integrated on the helmets.

  She smiled, this man had thought of everything.

  He turned right, away from the driveway and drove over the grass. They circled the mansion and continued on a small trail that zigzagged through the open fields, directly to the nearby woods.

  She should’ve been scared but it was exhilarating.

  Feeling the cool wind crashing against her, the engines noise beneath and going out to a mystery place was, in a way, liberating.

  Raiden followed the small trail through the open valley surrounding them. The dirt road turned more and more uneven as they went forward, patches of weed became more prevalent.

  This part of the road hadn’t been used in years.

  Raiden stopped just behind the tree line and turned back to Cassie.

  “We need to go slow here,” he said over the radio, “the ground is treacherous.”

  “Treacherous?” she repeated, giggling.

  He laughed, “yeah, very easy to crash or have the bike flip over. Just follow me.”

  “All right Mister Bear, lead on.”

  The trail led them deep into the forest, the sound of their vehicles echoing far and away through the trees.

  Raiden took a small turn and followed down a narrow path to a small clearing.

  It was breathtaking.

  But they weren’t done yet. They continued down until they reached a small stream.

  “Go slow here, and try pushing yourself forward to keep your balance.”

  The tires on the quad bikes could easily handle the undergrowth and roots, but she now understood what he meant by ‘treacherous’.

  The bike itself could climb practically any surface, but she needed to respect nature. Being overconfident in there would end the fun in a second.

  “Not much longer now,” he said.

  “Not much longer for what?” she said.

  “To reach the house.”

  “A house? In here?”

  “Just wait.”

  They turned left now and faced the stream, wider this time, but very shallow.

  “We’re not crossing the—”

  Raiden revved up the engine and pushed ahead.

  “Sure we are! Come on, chicken chicken chicken!” he teased with a laugh.

  “You call me a chicken again and I’ll break you!” she laughed with a thunderous roar of the ATV beneath her.

  They went up a steep hill and Raiden stopped, Cassie behind him.

  “You okay?”

  “Yes.”

  “Got wet?”

  “I’m fine, where to, now?”

  “We’re almost there.”

  Raw nature. She’d never been so deep in the forest anywhere. It was fantastic.

  She would be scared if she was on her own, but being with Raiden gave her an incredible sense of security.

  He knew these parts, nothing bad could happen to her when he was around.

  That’s how he made her feel.

  Cassie didn’t want to fall for him, she was trying not to with all her heart.

  If there was something she knew it was that people cared more about appearance than they liked to admit.

  He turned right and suddenly they were in an open field, the clouds above them tinged orange-red, the sunset to her left.

  Specks of rain fell on her visor, sliding away with the wind.

  A faint rainbow adorned the horizon.

  “There it is,” Raiden said.

  She gasped. Far away, across the clearing, a house laid in the outskirts of the forest, cozied up in their shade.

  The whole scene looked like a Bob Ross painting. She felt goose bumps filling her skin, the hair at the base of her neck bristled.

  It was a scene of taken right out of a fairy tale.

  The small cabin laid against the backdrop of the huge, lumbering trees. The clouds up above it colored in red and yellow, the last remaining sun beams tinting them in impossibly beautiful ways.

  She could not believe sights like that existed. Much less hidden in here, in a forest she’d known (or seen from a distance) for years.

  This place was impossible for anyone to find.

  “My humble retreat,” Raiden said as they approached the place.

  She didn’t respond immediately, she was still taking it all in.

  The cottage was a small, one floor building with a roofed porch two steps above the ground.

  “It’s wonderful,” she said.

  Raiden parked just below the steps of the house and got off his quad, taking off his helmet as he came to help Cassie out.

  “Thank you,” he said, his voice muffled by her helmet.

  He helped her take off the protective gear. The air was colder, or maybe the fact that you’re miles away from civilization has something to do with it.

  “Come on, I’ll show you,” Raiden said.

  She followed him, passing by a lovely porch swing rocking in the gentle afternoon wind.

  It was hard to believe they were still in Washington State, much less so close to Seattle.

  “Here’s the kitchenette,”

  It had more cabinets than she could count, two full dinnerware sets, a big stove with an oven... the darn thing even had an automatic dishwasher and double sink.

  “Raiden, this is a fully equipped kitchen,” Cassie said, “you even have an oven and a full sized fridge.”

  “Really? I always thought it was a bit small.”

  She giggled.

  “It’s not about the size, but the equipment you have.”

  “Oh,” he said, casually, “all right.”

  He opened a door to their right.

  “Here’s the bathroom.”

  It had a god darned jacuzzi.

  “Living room,” he said taking the plastic covers off the sofa, “there’s the bedrooms and that’s the front door.”

  “I thought this was a small cabin,” Cassie said.

  “Well, it is kind of small, isn’t it?”

  Her own apartment was smaller than this.

  “Have you been in a normal house before?”

  He shrugged.

  “Back home I do have a normal house, maybe one day you’ll see it,” he said with a smile.

  She felt the butterflies in her stomach stirring again. She could tell she was blushing.

  “Maybe,” she said, “wait, front door? Didn’t we just—”

  “Ah, no, we came in from behind the house, otherwise we wouldn’t have arrived here on time.”

  He opened the front door: a dirt road surrounded by big pine trees lead directly to the house.

  “Next time, we take that road, okay?”

  “Okay,” he said smiling, “you wanna watch the sunset?”

  She nodded. Raiden picked up a folded blanket from the main bedroom.

  “We still have about thirty minutes before sundown,” he said going outside, sitting on the porch swing.

  He invited her into his arms. She dived in, his body temperature gave her much needed warmth.

  He wrapped the blanket around them, this was as cozy as she dreamed.

  “Wait, I’ve got something else,” he said, taking a bag out of his sweatshirt.

  “I love Kisses!”

  “I knew you would.” he said giving her the bag.

  They shared the chocolates as the horizon flooded the sky with orange-red hues that slowly changed into purple.

  She had her head on his shoulder, his big, strong arm held her, she felt she was dreaming. The surroundings faded into the background as she immersed herself in that feeling.

  Nothing needed to be said to appreciate the natural spectacle that was happening before them.

  It was a gift from him to her, really. She didn’t even want to take a photograph. This moment was for them alone.

  She was in heav
en. Nothing stressed her, not her business, or her clients, or whatever bad thing’s she’d done in the past. It was a new start.

  His hand closed on hers and her heart started beating fast.

  She felt a lump down her throat. Bliss. This is bliss.

  The last remaining beams of light glowed behind the horizon. The air was cold, but they were on their little warm bubble, unable to move for a long time, enjoying each other’s company without saying a word.

  They’d finished their little bag of chocolates, though.

  “I love this,” she said.

  “Me too,” he whispered.

  “Do you come here very often?”

  He didn’t immediately reply, then sighed.

  “I hadn’t come here in years, that’s why everything’s a mess.”

  “A mess? How? Everything is perfect.”

  “Well,” he said, scratching his head, “the plastic on the sofa, for example. And I was here very very early, did a lot of cleaning. It was filled with dust.”

  “Oh, I get it. And the Nicholson’s? They don’t use this?”

  “No, why?”

  “Well, I didn’t think they would let a cabin in their estate go to waste, I guess.”

  He kissed her forehead.

  “This isn’t their land. All this belongs to me.”

  “But, didn’t we just—?”

  “Yes, I mean, I own a few acres next to them, the forest, the stream, that’s all mine.”

  “Really? What do you do with all that?”

  “Nothing. I want it to remain as virgin as possible, I don’t like covering every inch of the country with pavement.”

  She laughed, “very good, you passed the test.”

  “What test?”

  “The who-is-this-guy test, of course.”

  “Oh great, how did I do?”

  “You did great, actually.”

  He laughed and kissed her on the cheek.

  Thunder crackled above them and rain started to fall more evenly now.

  “Rain again,” he said, “let’s go inside, aren’t you cold?”

  She nodded, she was just starting to feel it, besides, it was almost completely dark now, she could barely see her surroundings anymore.

  She stood up with the blanket over her shoulders and followed Raiden inside the cabin.

  It was completely dark in there.

  “I can’t see anything,”

  “Wait up,” he said. He disappeared in the blackness, his footsteps heavy on the hardwood floor.

  Sounds of cracking wood filled the space until Raiden lit up a match.

  Crazy how such a small light can give off so much illumination.

  Raiden was kneeling on the ground near the living room, his hands inside an open cabinet on the wall.

  “Ow!” he said and the match went out.

  “You okay?” Cassie asked.

  “Yeah, all good,” he replied, lighting another match. He turned to her and smiled his know-it-all-smile. She loved how he acted instead of just talked.

  He took an oil lamp out of the cabinet. It seemed old, but sturdy. Then searched inside a small bag and found four white, half used candles and a bottle of oil.

  He lit a candle, and started filling the lamp with oil. A minute or two later it was shining bright.

  Cassie closed the door behind her, and joined him in the living room.

  She was ready to seat on the couch but Raiden yelled “Wait!”

  She almost jumped out the window in surprise, her face immediately turned to him, her eyes wide.

  “Let me put a blanket on them,” he said, “it’s been a while since they’ve been dusted.”

  “You almost gave me a heart attack!”

  “I know, sorry!”

  He ran and came back from the bedroom, placed a bed sheet on the sofa.

  “All yours, milady.”

  She sat down and he put a few small logs on the fireplace.

  “So we don’t get cold,” he said.

  “This is getting better by the second,” she said.

  He started a small fire, heat immediately radiating outward. He tapped two or three times on his cell phone, then pressed the top on a gray speaker and soft music filled the room.

  “Wow,” she said, “this is pretty romantic, Mister Bear.”

  “I swear I didn’t plan all this.”

  “It’s fate,” she said.

  “Yes. I knew it was fate from the moment I met you.”

  Her heart skipped a beat.

  He said it casually, but then realized what he did and coughed.

  It was the most romantic thing someone had ever said to her. Maybe this man wasn’t playing with her heart. Maybe this was the real thing.

  “Come, sit with me,” she said, “tell me about your day.”

  He did, going under the blanket beside her.

  “What do you wanna know?”

  “Everything.”

  Chapter 17

  So he did. He told her everything.

  About his job as a protector, up in the White Paws Mountain back in Oregon. About the Shadowlands, the unnatural reality that coexisted with this one, always trying to seep into the world and take away all life.

  He told her about his alpha, Damien, the Primal Bear. How he was a great leader who found strength in his mate, becoming the epitome of what a bear shifter was.

  He told her about his crew... his friends: Maverick and Faith, an unlikely bear-shifter and vampire couple; Enzo, the channeler of the group, he could not only pick up on people thoughts, he was a kind of medic who had great bear powers, capable of healing and controlling the elements; and Franklin, the one who knew and understood all things technology. The crew could live a normal, modern life, thanks to his skills with computers and hardware.

  She took it all in.

  She never knew anything about the Shadowlands. About how most of the bear shifters in the region had a front job that was covering for something much more important.

  She had heard rumors online, but always thought they were nonsense.

  “The government actually encourages those rumors,” Raiden said, “the whole idea of the Shadowlands sounds so completely far out that trying to cover it would only call attention to it. What do they do? They post blurry pictures online to encourage people to spread the voice. That way it becomes known as a conspiracy theory and no one really cares. Like Big Foot and that kind of things.”

  She gasped, “Big foot is real?”

  He laughed. “No beautiful, that’s not what I meant, I worded it wrong. I mean people group the Shadowlands with Big Foot and other nonsense and whenever someone says something about the Shadowlands it’s like he’s babbling about—”

  “About things that don’t exist, I get it. It’s smart, really.”

  “Yeah. It helps us stay focused on our job and not on trying to keep people away from danger.”

  “So you’re a big, bad boy.”

  “I am no such thing,” he said in an overly slanted English accent.

  “You’re a bear ranger, a warrior who fights monsters,” Cassie said slowly turning to him, “that’s pretty much the definition of bad boy, me thinks...”

  She kissed him. She was trembling with anticipation as she leaned to him, her want mixed with something she couldn’t describe. Something like what she used to feel when she was a high school girl and the boy she had a crush on passed by her.

  Or the time in college when she dated a guy and liked him enough to let him take her virginity.

  But this wasn’t a high school crush. This was real. They knew and liked each other.

  And he wasn’t an asshole, like the college guy, a player who would cheat on her within a month of being together.

  Raiden respected her.

  This man was the first one in her life that she truly desired.

  Not just as a woman and in a professional sense. It was something... more.

  His hot lips softly pressed on hers, but his inten
sity was completely different. This wasn’t like the night at the fashion show.

  The way his hands touched her, relishing every inch of her skin, but at the same time softly taking care of not hurting her, as if she was a precious, fragile thing and any sudden movement would break her.

  He pulled away from her and his gray eyes found her.

  “You’re nervous,” he whispered, his voice sending shivers down her spine.

  Her ragged breath couldn’t form a word.

  “Is everything okay?” he asked.

  She was so aroused, she wanted him again and again and again. But she was scared.

  Who wouldn’t?

  She knew she’d started to develop feelings for him, and that always ended badly.

  “I’m fine,” she whispered.

  He moved closer, the tip of his nose grazed her own and she snickered.

  “Tell me,” he said.

  She bit her lip.

  “It’s just that... this is too perfect.”

  He thought for a second, his eyes never leaving her.

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  His deep baritone voice was like a million needles just barely grazing her skin. It was a sensual massage that had a certain danger to it.

  She could let herself fall for this guy and have her heart broken and she knew... she truly knew that this was the man that she would never forget.

  “Nothing is perfect” she whispered.

  Her heart was beating so fast she thought it was going to burst out of her ribcage.

  He placed his right hand on her chest.

  “You don’t want me?”

  “Oh God, yes, of course I want you.”

  She breathed out, needing him.

  “I’ve never done any of the things we’ve done.”

  “That scares you?”

  “A little... yes.”

  He nodded.

  “I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

  “Raiden. I love what we do. It’s been a kind of... journey. I’m discovering myself with you.”

  He smiled, “me too.”

  “I don’t want to stop. It’s scary but in a good way. The way you look at me, like you’re going to do the most perverted things to me... it turns me on.”

  “I thought it scared you.”

  “It scares me how much I want that.”

  His breath fell on her chest; he was holding himself back. A low growl escaped his throat, his grip became tighter, wilder.

  “We’ll take it slow.”