by Layla Silver
She was so hot. He looked up at her from below, admiring the way the moonlight accented the curves of her body and breasts. Her breasts wiggled as she adjusted on top of him, her pretty little nipples looking a little pink and raw after he’d played with them. Angie teased him for a bit, rubbing back and forth on top of him. His whole body shuddered with each movement, and the Bear inside him wanted to burst free. Josh clamped his hands down on her hips and helped her up so she could slip him inside her. Angie’s body trembled as she slid onto his length, easing him inside her achingly slow. Once he was all the way inside her, she arched her back and moaned, throwing her head back. She swayed her hips with him inside her.
“Fuck,” Josh said, closing his eyes for a second, but opening them again just as quickly because he couldn’t bear not looking at her.
Josh rocked his hips in tune with her, their bodies pressed together in a crescendo of lust, their bodies finally giving in to their unbearable desire. He let Angie take full control, guiding her hips and helping her where needed, letting her bounce and sway like an exotic dancer. She grinned down at him, teasing him until he was right near the edge as she shuddered and quivered on top of him, almost pushing herself over.
But she dragged it out, letting the pleasure ebb and grow inside each of them, racking it up until it couldn’t build up any further. Angie started to tighten around him as she pushed him hard against her sweet spot.
“Josh, I’m going to—” she gasped, her words completely stolen from her. She slowed down, shuddering with pleasure. Her nails clawed in his chest as she shook, groaning and gasping.
Josh pulled her forward, not wanting to let her off so easily. Her breasts rubbed against his chest, her lips crushing into his. He held her in place as she shook, both their senses heightened. Josh rocked his hips, thrusting himself into her as he almost reached his own climax. He grunted and growled against her lips again, but this time not as viciously as he pumped into her harder, that pressure inside him building and building until it snapped and he finished inside her. Angie's moans and the feel of her were his whole world. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, squeezing her as he finally slowed down, then he released her.
Angie stayed on top of him, panting, their hearts beating as one. Sweat clung to their skin, gluing them together until Angie rolled off of him and onto her side. Josh captured her in his arms, pulling her close and kissing her softly on her head before they fell into a deep sleep.
***
Angie and Josh pulled up outside Angie's place the next morning, silently beaming at each other. He leaned over to kiss her, holding her cheek to tilt her face toward his. Josh wished he could hold her close to him, feel the press of her body against his, but the center console was in the way. An unmovable brick. Maybe that was for the best, since touching more than just her face would make him eager to replay last night.
Still, he didn’t want to let her go. Angie was his mate, the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. After their third night together, Josh was absolutely certain she wanted to be with him, too, as long as he gave her a bit more time to adjust to him. She would want to take it slow, and he was fine with that. But he needed to tell her what she meant to him sooner rather than later, to ask her to be his.
Angie pulled away, but the caramel taste of her lingered on his lips. "Want to come in? My mother is inside, watching Emma, and I thought you could ... you know ... meet them," she said. "If you want to, of course."
Josh's heart skipped a beat. He'd never been introduced to a woman's mother before, at least not on purpose. Of course, he wanted to meet Angie's mother, to finally meet the little Emma who Angie adored and loved so much.
"I'd love to," he said.
They both slid out of the truck, and Josh took Angie's hand. She led him up the steps and to her place, his heart racing all the while. The door stuck a little when Angie opened it, and she forced it open with a grunt, almost tumbling inside, but Josh caught her. She laughed and brushed her hair behind her ears.
Her house was even smaller than Josh remembered it to be from the last time he'd been inside, but to be fair, he hadn't really been focused on the house that time. The door opened into a small hallway with peeling floral wallpaper. Josh could hear something playing on a television in the other room, and the giggling of a little girl, he assumed Emma, from somewhere out of sight.
Angie led him through the kitchen and into the living room, where a woman who looked much like an older version of Angie was playing with a little girl with chocolate brown hair. They were playing with a collection of stuffed bears in various shapes and sizes, almost looking like they were acting out some elaborate story between the two of them. Being a Bear himself, Josh found the stuffed animals cute, especially seeing how enthusiastically the little girl was playing with them.
Emma looked up at them as they approached. She hugged the largest bear to her chest. “Mumma!” she said, running over to Angie and hugging her leg. Angie placed a hand on her head, running her fingers through the little girl’s hair.
"Oh good, you're home already, I need to—" Angie's mother looked up to see Josh. She looked completely stunned, looking back and forth between him and Angie. Finally, she smiled. "Dearest, you picked someone handsome."
Angie laughed and playfully hit her mother with her purse. "Mom, you know I only go out with the very best." She winked at Josh. "This is Josh."
He reached out to take her mother's hand in a firm shake. "Nice to meet you, Josh. I'm Elizabeth. I wish there was more time to get to know each other, but I've gotta run." She turned to Angie. "The little one already ate, but she's getting a little antsy, I think she wants to go outside."
"Thanks, mom," Angie said, walking her mother to the front door and waving her goodbye, Emma on her heels.
Back in the living room, Angie lifted Emma into her arms and kissed her forehead. “Alright, hun, give mommy a few minutes, then we’ll go for a walk.”
She put Emma back into her playpen, leaving her to be occupied by her toys and the television. But Josh was confused. Wasn’t she going to introduce them? He thought that was why she had wanted to invite him in. A sense of uneasiness worked its way into his gut as he followed Angie into the kitchen. In his nervousness, Josh took a moment to examine the apartment a little closer; the floral wallpaper wasn’t just peeling, it was faded and barely visible throughout most of the apartment, the tiled floors were old and bumpy, and the appliances looked like they'd seen better days.
Even though it was cozy, Josh wanted more for Angie and Emma. He wanted them to come live at his new house on the ranch, even though it was much too soon for even bringing it up to Angie. That place was practically a palace compared to this.
Still, the apartment was well kept and decorated with bits of Emma and Angie's personalities. Pictures of the two of them were pinned to the fridge, and a dog calendar hung on the wall. Curiously, there were lots of bears in the apartment, decorating the fridge and counters. They even had a stack of bear-shaped, plastic plates on the counter. Emma really loved bears.
The bears were starting to unnerve him. He glanced at Angie, who was twiddling her thumbs and biting her lip. She glanced away from him when he looked up at her.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She hesitated before she spoke. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Josh took a breath. There was something really wrong.
"Emma is—" Angie started, only to be cut off by a grumbling roar coming from the living room. Her mouth hung open, unable to finish her sentence, her eyes wide with panic and fear.
“What was that?” Josh said.
Instead of answering, Angie jumped to her feet and rushed into the living room. Josh was right behind her.
In the playpen where Emma had been only a few minutes before, was now a little bear cub.
The cub chewed on one of the stuffed bears, rolling around in the pen and growling at it. Its brown, shaggy coat was the exact same color as
Emma’s hair. No way. The bear … the bear was Emma! Josh’s pulse quickened, and his thoughts raced, jumping to wild conclusions. How was Emma a shifter? Josh tore his gaze away from the cub, glancing at Angie. She was shaking. Was it possible that Angie had been a shifter this whole time and hadn’t told him? That would have explained why she wasn’t scared of him.
Josh tossed the thought away, realizing that, no, she really hadn’t known anything about shifters before him. This was … Emma was …
Emma looked to be about one and a half years old. Her chocolate brown hair was just like his. Her turning into a bear … Could ... could Emma be his child?
He stared at the little bear in shock, unaware of his surroundings and seeing only the little cub in the playpen.
Chapter 12 – Angie
Angie stared at Emma, her mouth hanging open. She assumed the little bear was Emma, at least, rolling around and gnawing on her favorite stuffed bear. Josh gawked at the little girl, processing twice as much information as Angie. Shit, she’d just been about to tell him the truth.
This couldn’t be happening. Not once had Angie thought that Emma might be a Bear shifter, just like her father. What did she know about Bear shifting abilities? It seemed endlessly naïve, now, that she hadn’t even considered the possibility that there might be something genetic about them. And now, right before Angie was about to tell Josh the truth about Emma, that he was her father, she transformed for the first time in front of them both.
This couldn’t be happening.
She must still be asleep, maybe nodded off on the drive over to her place. Yes, that must be it. Josh would wake her up any second now, kissing her neck like he had earlier that morning. Angie stared at Emma for a solid minute before she realized that wasn’t going to happen. This was real. Emma was a Bear, and Josh would now inevitably figure it all out before she had the chance to tell him.
Angie knew she needed to say something, take control of the situation, but she couldn’t bear to look at him. Her breaths came in quick succession, and her head spun until she couldn’t take it any longer.
“Josh—” she started, finally finding the courage to face him.
His expression was pained, half looking at her, half looking at the cub. “Angie, is … is Emma mine?”
Angie closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then nodded. Why hadn’t she just told him sooner, back when she was certain he wasn’t who he was two years ago? All of this could have been avoided. Now he was going to hate her. Everything, last night, none of it would matter.
Josh just stared at her, the pain on his face plain for her to see. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but he just shook his head, clenched his jaw, and growled. Finally, he turned and stormed off, not saying a word. He didn’t quite look mad, but …
“Josh!” she called after him, but he didn’t stop.
She didn’t chase him, either. There was nothing she could say to stop him. How could she ever apologize to him for not telling him that he had a daughter?
Angie just slumped onto the floor, watching Emma get bored of rolling around. She started clawing at the carpet, digging some of it up, but Angie didn’t even care. Josh knew about Emma. Emma was a shifter.
What had she done? After everything was finally going so well, after she was finally going to tell him the truth, he still found out the wrong way. What was she going to do now? Maybe Josh wouldn’t ever want to see her again, and then what would she do about Emma? How could she ever explain all the things there were to explain about being a Bear shifter to her daughter when she didn’t know the first thing about that?
Angie slumped forward, holding her head in her hands. She’d believed Josh two years ago when he’d said he was a shifter, so why had she never thought that Emma would have that ability too?
She had really screwed up this time. After this, Josh might never trust her again, right after she finally worked up the courage to try and trust him. Emma would never have a father.
Tears stung Angie's eyes, but she didn't let herself cry. She held it all back despite the ache in her chest, the hollowness that told her this was all her fault. If she'd been able to trust him, if she'd given him another chance sooner, none of this would have happened.
After taking a few minutes to calm down, Angie tried calling Josh's cell, but he didn't pick up. She broke down sobbing on the floor.
***
Angie paced back and forth in front of her microwave while it heated up Emma's lunch. More chicken since the little one couldn't get enough of it, but ever since her first transformation the other day, her appetite seemed to have increased, and Emma almost always seemed to be hungry. It was too soon to tell, but it was already starting to feel like she was feeding a Bear cub and not a little girl anymore.
An entire day had passed since Emma's transformation, and Angie still hadn’t heard anything from Josh. Not since he’d given her that look of utter devastation and betrayal before storming out of her house.
When Angie had realized that Josh wasn’t coming back, her worry had been that Emma might not be able to transform back. Or she’d get hurt in the process. Nothing she did would make Emma turn back into the little girl she was familiar with, and it wasn’t until hours later that Emma bothered to turn back into a human. She’d acted like nothing had happened. Just a normal day.
And Josh had yet to answer any of her calls and texts. It’d only been a day, so Angie tried not to freak out. She’d kept the truth about Emma from him for weeks, so she knew she could wait a little bit for him to process what had happened. Still, Angie couldn’t bear the thought of leaving things between them like that, not after yet another fantastic night between them, where everything had seemed perfect … Apparently, she and Josh had appeared quite happy together the morning after their date, or at least that’s what her mother had texted her afterward. She’d even asked Angie for more details about their date, but Angie had ignored her. There wasn’t anything to tell, not anymore, not if she couldn’t talk to Josh so that she could fix what she’d broken.
The microwave beeped, and Angie took the shredded chicken and mixed vegetables and gave them to Emma in her high chair.
"Here you go, sweetie," she said. She tried to sound cheery, but even to herself, it sounded fake. "Try to use your fork, please."
Emma didn't seem to hear her, though. "Yay! Chicken!" she said. Always enthusiastic about food, except for when there wasn't enough of it.
She watched Emma stab the shredded chicken with her fork, sloppily eating it without a worry at all, like she had no idea what had happened yesterday, how close she’d been to being introduced to her father. Angie found herself wishing that she could be as carefree as Emma. Of course, that was impossible, but it was nice to dream.
Angie had expected some backlash from Josh when she finally got around to telling him that Emma was his daughter. Of course, he would have been mad that she hadn't told him right after they met again that fateful day. But how was she to know that he would have been receptive? How was she to know he wouldn’t just run for the hills like her father had when her mother told him?
When Josh had told Angie that he didn't mind that she had a daughter, though ... not telling him then had been a mistake. A huge mistake. One that she now worried she wouldn't be able to reverse.
Maybe Josh wouldn't forgive her for lying to him, but Angie knew, now, that Josh was a changed man. He would be a good father. And since Emma was his child, she didn't think he would abandon her. And with that thought, Angie’s mind suddenly cleared up and came to a decision. She wasn’t sure it was the right one, but it felt right. It was the only thing that seemed right in this situation. If Josh wasn't going to come around to Angie’s place again or answer any of her messages, then she had no choice but to go to him.
"Sweetie, do you want to do for a drive after lunch? There's someone I want you to meet," Angie said.
Emma's face lit up. "Car ride, yay!" Emma said, now giggling so much she couldn't eat.
> It was good that Emma was so enthusiastic about leaving the house because that was all that kept Angie’s decision intact. If she hadn’t told Emma they were leaving, she probably would have changed her mind and gone back to sulking.
But she really couldn’t wait around doing nothing. This was important. Josh was important. Perhaps he would understand that she’d just wanted to keep herself and Emma safe. And yet a deep fear of rejection still existed inside her, the ultimate fear that would have kept her home, if it wasn’t Emma’s future that was on the line, too.
Emma … How would she react to all this, finally meeting her father? Would she even understand? Angie had told Emma that her father was not in their lives, but being so young, she didn’t think that Emma really understood. The little girl was smart, however, and Angie knew that Emma would start asking questions soon as she spent more time with the other toddlers at daycare and eventually at school. She would figure out that something was different at her home.
She had a father now, though. He was here. And Angie had the chance to make sure he stayed, at least, in Emma's life.
Emma finished eating, so Angie washed the dishes, cleaned up a little, and used the repetitive actions to mentally prepare herself to go to the ranch and find Josh. Finally, when she’d done everything she could possibly think of to keep herself from going, she sighed and took her car keys.
Her daughter was jumping up and down near the front door. “Mummy! Car ride!” she said.
Worry seeped into every muscle of Angie’s body, but she kept on a bright face for Emma's sake. “We’re going now. Come on, sweetie.”
She took Emma and Beary into her arms and walked them to the car across her dying lawn. Once she’d strapped Emma into her car seat, Angie started driving, leaving the safe parking lot of her building, keeping a determined eye on the road, focusing on driving instead of moving inward to keep worrying about Josh, Emma, and what was going to happen when they got to the ranch. She spotted a black car pull out at the same time as her but didn't think anything of it until she was almost on the highway and the car was still behind her. It kept its distance, far enough back that Angie might not have noticed it if she hadn't seen it leave her street with her.
