by Willow Wilde
But I hadn’t died. In fact, as I pulled myself shakily off of the ground, it didn’t feel as if I’d broken any bones whatsoever.
There’s no goddamn way, I thought to myself. This kind of miraculous shit isn’t supposed to happen. I was a fucking goner.
Despite some bruising, and inevitable stiffness that would appear the next morning, I didn’t have so much as a missing tooth or a shattered elbow. My gaze drifted up the slope, tracing the redistribution of dirt and stone. Our hiking group had been walking one of the lower trails, but it was still well out of sight from my vantage point.
How long have I been down here? I wondered to myself. The sun still hung lazily in the sky — if it was the same day, I couldn’t have been unconscious more than a few hours. Thinking quickly, I took stock of myself. My body felt only mildly dehydrated, but I had been a little thirsty before the landslide anyway. Daring to twist my appendages and curve my spine, it appeared that my spry, flexible articulation was still intact. In fact, overlooking some minor scrapes and cuts, I felt fine.
This is too weird, I thought to myself. With eyes veiled in disbelief, I gazed up the slope one last time, marveling at the descent.
But there were other important matters to take care of. I had no food, and I was stranded from my group — who were undoubtedly looking for me. Logic rationed that I was going to be on my own for at least the night, and I needed to find a pure water source and shelter.
With nowhere else to turn, I gazed towards the woods. The earth had carried me squarely to a small clearing at the foot of the mountain, surrounding me on three sides with rock. The only way to advance was directly forward; with certain hesitance, I planted my first foot in that direction.
* * * *
It was only after about an hour of walking that I realized how much beauty filled the forest. As an amateur nature photographer, I appreciated nature’s majesty arguably more than most people my age, but these woods were something entirely else. The very leaves seemed to pop more, shining in brighter, greener colors as the sunlight drifted lazily to cast the canopy in brilliance. The underbrush was somehow far more forgiving than I would have expected, and I realized that I hadn’t nicked myself or scratched my skin on any of the branches as I pushed forward.
Stranger still was the wildlife. It seemed to pay me very little mind, and after taking a small break to catch my breath, I realized that a doe was literally feet away on the other side of a healthy trunk. Only spotting it out of the corner of my eye, I completely expected it to instantly dart away — instead, as I carefully climbed over roots and dips in the soft soil, it amazingly turned to stare me in the eyes. My hands hesitated in the air as an irrational fear crept across my mind. As if approaching a beautiful, delicate monarch butterfly with an intrepid finger, I feared that touching its very fur would harm the docile creature. After a moment of regarding my trembling hands, it lazily trotted off towards a distant bush, eager to munch on the available berries.
My amazement only increased as I continued across the woods. A short while later, I encountered a majestic stag, wandering lazily along between the trees. Instinct took over, and I carefully followed it — always happy to keep my distance as to not disturb the beast. After several hundred strides, it led me towards the sound of trickling water, and I stepped from the trees to encounter a small creek, babbling down the rocks and cutting a path through the woods.
Parched, I dropped to my knees and swept cupped handfuls of the running water to my face, thirstily slurping the sustaining gift. After sustaining myself with the water, I turned and noticed the stag once more. It had paused to watch me, having already taken its fill of the life-giving water. The absurdity of the sight almost sent me falling over with laughter, and after we quietly regarded each other with mutual surprise, it calmly turned and vanished into the brush.
Eager to stay near the water, I followed along the edge. Colliding with another trail of water, the growing river descended further still into the woods. I felt compelled to strip my clothes and dip beneath the edge of the rippling channel, but the water was so clear and free from impurities that I didn’t dare taint it with my dirty, dusty skin. Instead, I continued to follow it down, hoping to find a reasonable place to set up shelter within a sizable distance. After all, I was afraid of drawing attention from whatever predators lurked these woods, and staying close to the water had its downsides.
As the sun began to set in the sky, I encountered a renewed surge of beauty in the forest. Surrounded by incredible plants I had never seen, I marveled at them as they gradually unfurled their petals together, bathing the trees in a warm, bluish glow. Their growing luminescence matched the waning light of the sun above, striking a perfect equilibrium of light. With the sun quickly descending out of sight, the light bounced harder off of the thick, protective trees in an incredible display. Being around them as I wandered the heart of the forest surpassed anything I had ever seen.
But their natural luminescence wasn’t the only beauty to behold. The vegetation and underbrush had given way to soft, spongey grass that bounced under my every step. The trees themselves were wrapped in thick vines that sprouted beautiful flowers of all colors, adding a soft, sweet aroma that soothed my senses.
Somehow, I knew that I should be exhausted. I’d barely eaten anything since first starting the trail, and I’d survived both a sudden landslide and wandering the forest for hours. Fearful of misidentifying poisonous berries, I had only eaten few small handfuls after watching other mammals chomp on the vines. While I had periodically stopped to scoop water to my face, I knew I’d have to eat something soon, or find a place to rest…but I wasn’t tired, nor was I incredibly hungry.
This entire day is just crazy, I thought to myself.
But I had no idea how seriously crazy it was going to become…
* * * *
As I stopped wandering the forest and appreciated this vast change in the flora, I wondered about the rest of the hiking group. I hadn’t seen any of them descend over the side with me. I wondered if they would come looking for me?
It made more sense for them to call the authorities and try to have a search and rescue party dig me from the debris. Of course, they wouldn’t find a body. Maybe they would search the woods, but I wondered how far in they would go. It didn’t make sense for someone who had just cascaded down the side of a mountain in a landslide to not only have survived, but to have clawed her way out of the dirt and wander across the woods for hours.
I had been so enchanted by these woods that I hadn’t stopped to wonder if I should try to remain close to the settled debris. It made sense to go hunting for a clean water source, but perhaps I should have tried to establish some sort of shelter around the rock.
As I reflected on these things, it occurred to me to abandon my wanderlust and find my way back. If I traced my way up the river, I reasoned, I could cut out the vast majority of the guesswork and search for the appropriate landmarks. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I hadn’t quite paid attention to where I had first encountered it. Worst case scenario, I veered back into the woods too soon, or too late. Either way, without any sort of a vantage point, the likelihood that I could return was incredibly low.
I could only press forward and hope for the best.
But there was more to it than that. I wanted to see more of these woods. I felt something drawing me closer, following this riverbank further along. I couldn’t explain it to myself, and I still can’t now – it was an irrational compulsion, driving me further into the heart of the forest. By now, I’d reasoned that I wasn’t anywhere near civilization. For all I knew, I’d wandered directly in the opposite direction. It occurred to me that I didn’t know of any major road that ran near here. But my path was set, and instead of being terrified…I was at ease, somehow.
I felt like it didn’t matter that I didn’t know what I was doing. All that was important was pressing onward…and with my surprisingly intact stamina, it was easy to dispel
my fears, putting one foot back in front of the other as I spotted a large, thick tree trunk in the distance, just a short ways from the river. It seemed as good as any a place to rest, and I made my way towards it.
* * * *
It was when I was resting at the crook of that tree, resting peacefully for about half an hour, that I saw the large grizzly bears. There were two of them, lumbering quietly towards me at a leisurely pace, and I tensed up for the first time in hours. It was then that I realized I hadn’t actually SEEN any active predators this entire time — not besides a few wolves that were slumbering to the side earlier, or a wildcat lazed on a tree bough above the river.
The bears were clearly advancing on me, and I felt too terrified to move. Are these the kind of bears you challenge? Do you shrink down from them? What the fuck am I supposed to do?
“You are not meant to be here,” a rugged voice warned me. My gaze reluctantly drifted from them to spot the broad, sculpted build of a man in the semi-darkness. He stood close and menacingly, his hand pressed against the tree as he watched me. Had I not been completely preoccupied with the approaching bears, I would have wondered why he was completely naked, his thick cock hanging between his legs.
“The bears! What do I do?” I quietly shrieked.
“That depends on you,” he answered, turning to the advancing bears. They paused, pacing in front of us but within lunging range.
“I don’t think I understand,” I replied, shocked at what I was seeing. Why weren’t they already springing to rip me apart?
“My brothers here help me protect this grove from your world. Here, in this place, nature thrives — as it was meant to.” His eyes glared down on me now, even in the dim light. “But you humans and your need to conquer have destroyed many places like this. This grove is one of the last few dozen left, bastions of paradise that humans have not yet scarred or wiped from the land.”
“But you’re human!” I stumbled through my thoughts, finding it hard to comprehend what I was experiencing.
“I am a shifter, much like my brothers.” He waved his hand toward the pacing bears, and something incredible happened. The very air began to glow around them as their bodies contorted and shrank, their thick fur receding until they rose as very handsome, very naked men as well.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
“As you see, we change at will between man and beast,” the first stranger told me. “We are a small pack of werebear shifters. I am Marcus, and this is Denham and Zander.” The other two shifters matched the intensity of his glare as they stood together now, staring me down.
“What happens next,” Marcus explained, “is up to you.”
“Are you going to kill me?” I blurted out in fear. “I don’t want to die…and I’ve seen such beautiful things today…”
“Normally, yes. We would destroy you for daring to come anywhere near this sacred place.” Marcus paused, summing me up with his eyes. “But we know of the landslide that carried you down to the forest, and how the animals have coexisted beside you. You haven’t disturbed a single creature since coming to these woods, and they have offered you an immense respect. We, too, shall offer that grace to you,” he continued, “but only at a price.”
“And what’s that?”
“You will join our pack.
“You’re going to make me one of you? A shifter?” I asked incredulously.
“Of course, we can’t give you the gift. Our kind can only be born, not changed. However, were you to become our mate, willingly supply us with a litter of cubs to raise, you would become one with our life. We are the lords of this forest, and within our ranks you would see and experience incredible things available only to those close to nature. The choice is yours.”
“You want me to mate you,” I repeated incredulously. “What happens if I refuse?”
“We cannot allow you to spread word of this place to your kind,” Marcus explained matter-of-factly. “You are free to leave this grove, but you could never leave these woods alive. The scavengers would pick your bones clean before the sun rose once more.”
I gulped immediately. The wildlife had been almost oblivious to me so far…but what happened if that changed?
But their offer was…intriguing. I stared at these three incredible men as they stood bared in front of me, their every blaring perfection in plain sight. Each shifter was graced with broad shoulders and chiseled abs, stretching down to long cocks that dangled at the ready. With handsome, cut faces and piercing green eyes that gazed upon me, I felt myself melting under their scrutiny.
“I don’t understand…why do you want me? There are way more attractive women out there…”
“You are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen,” Marcus explained to me. “Your body is thick and strong, capable of withstanding our…needs. We can be rough, and we need someone who can hold her own between us. With your frame, you can take it from all sides at once, carry on with us…satisfy us.”
I felt my face reddening. I’d never been spoken to that way, not with such conviction. There had been times that I was with guys my age who were all talk, just desperate for a lay. Those were the only guys I had been able to fuck.
But this group of shifters – they looked at me differently. Hungrily. What they wanted, they knew I could supply, and they knew I could take it. Whereas I had never been truly appreciated before, these werebears wanted it rough, and hot, and they wanted it with me. It helped that they were completely fucking stunning in the looks department…
Even ignoring the threat that they had made, and their willingness to end my life right here and now, I would have done almost goddamn anything to fuck three handsome men like this. And here was the perfect opportunity, handed to me on a silver plate! It helped that they were some feral, so primal…it woke something deep in my loins, a burning passion that demanded fulfillment. Something deep inside me wanted out, and it knew that the best way was pinned between them…bared for them, broken down by them, shared like a chunk of meat.
But I wasn’t just a chunk of meat to them, not really. The clear hunger in their eyes was tempered with something else. Respect. They seriously wanted me to stay with them, long after this little “initiation” of theirs.
Rising up before them, I sauntered closer into the cool, collective gaze of their hungry eyes. “Well, if you’re going to mate me…there’s no better time than the present, is there, boys?”
They surrounded me in an instant, but held off just before taking the prize.
“Are you positive?” Marcus asked me. “We will only take you if you are sure…”
I hooked my thumbs into the waistband of my shorts. “Better warm up the engines, boys…there’s a lot of me to satisfy…’
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Enjoy!
-Willow Wilde
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