They soothed her as she came back to Earth, both on each side of her, Quinn more than ready to take Travis’s place. Trudi reached for him with a smile, her own devotion to Quinn and Travis obvious. Quinn’s love was not as tender however but it was just as consuming. He took her mouth before he slid into her, needing to taste her, to feel her breath against his lips. Quinn’s love was a demand, a demand for love in return and Trudi pushed him over to give him what he demanded.
She straddled him, making him take her breasts in his hands as she ground down onto him, setting her own pace, her demands answering his own. Trudi rode Quinn, pushed him, not letting up on him, not slowing down when he moved his hands to take her waist, an attempt to slow her down, but now she wanted to see him come, she wanted him to give her all, and she would not slow her pace. She let her passion go, one of the things these people, these men demanded, and took what she wanted while giving him exactly what he needed.
The vulnerability that appeared on Quinn’s face, the total loss of his own control astonished her as he finally let go and let her have her way. Trudi didn’t follow him immediately, though she wanted to, she wanted to watch him more and just as his look of amazement started to change into a relaxed look of contentment she allowed herself to go again, one last flight to heaven before she rested for a while. She fell against his chest when the sensations calmed, promising herself she was going to explore these two a little more after she’d had a couple of more drinks and something to eat. Maybe one of them would make her a sandwich, she thought just before she fell into a light sleep.
Twenty minutes later she was awake and amazingly there was a sandwich on the side table of the bed, an olive on a toothpick stuck into the rather large concoction of meat and cheese. She didn’t think she’d be able to eat it all but she did as she sat up to hear what her men had to say.
“Trudi, we have to tell you something. We should have told you the first time around but we didn’t know if you were coming back or not.” Quinn started.
“This may be a little shocking,” Travis revealed, “but if you let us show you then explain I think it will be alright.”
They were really worried about this, Trudi thought, but she had an idea of what was coming. Smiling she watched as both men went from being humans to huge bears within the blink of an eye. Travis changed into a black bear and Quinn a brown bear. She looked at them, scratched each ones chin, looked into their eyes and saw that each one was cognizant of who she was, of who they were, then laughed as she sat down. It was a good thing they were all naked she thought as they shifted back to their human forms, clothes were expensive to replace.
She knew both men were perplexed at her laughter and she kissed each one then stood away from them. Closing her eyes and concentrating Trudi revealed her own secret to these men she was falling in love with. As they watched Trudi went from a human being with silvery blonde hair to a small polar bear with white fur and then back to her human shape again.
“Oh.” Travis said quietly.
“How did we not know, why a polar bear?” From Quinn.
“My father was from Alaska, from a shifter tribe there. They thought they were the only ones. I’ve been hiding it for so long I can barely shift anymore. I have to concentrate to do it now. I’ve kept it secret my whole life because I knew what would happen if it was revealed. A freak, studied and prodded, I didn’t want that. So I’ve tried to hide it. Maybe that’s why you didn’t know? My father died when I was young so I don’t know a lot about it and my mother refused to admit it even happened. She’d lock herself in her room for hours praying for the evil to leave me alone. That was her solution, I was evil.”
“But you aren’t, you’re just part of an ancient line of humans. That’s all.” Travis said. I would later learn he was the group’s historian and knowledge keeper. “You’re no different from us, just another type of bear. You’re always welcome here, no matter what, dearest. Always a part of the Ursa Majors, always a part of us. You are ours and we are yours.”
“For life?” I asked, hope and love finally free from the walls I’d built around myself.
“For life,” they replied in unison.
Freedom at last, Trudi thought. Freedom, love, and joy, all she’d ever wanted but wouldn’t allow herself to dream of, and in the most unlikely of places. She was home now, at last.
The End
Part III
Bearly Friends
Shifter Romance
Part I
Bear Baby
About the Book
A circle of friends is a thing to cherish. For Tessa Johnson a summer trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Northern Georgia is just the thing to take the edge off of a rough year and what has turned out to be a very tumultuous time for one of her friends. She has no idea she’s heading straight into fate and a world she’s only ever dreamed of. And her friends are coming with her.
A string of mistakes leads to some very interesting interactions with the very stoic Hale Masters. Tessa can’t keep her eyes off him, and the promise of excitement and passion that flares in his eyes makes her school-teacher heart beat. He makes her want to let her hair down but she holds back. Would such a rich man be interested in her when her two beautiful best friends are far more his type? Or is she wrong and she’s just what the Alpha male has been looking for?
Tessa finds herself conflicted and lost but with her friends around, encouragement to break her own rules is never far. Letting go is a hard thing to do but Tessa wants to give Hale all he asks for and more. An emergency at home changes her plans however and Tessa takes it as the answer she’s been seeking. But is it really the one she wanted?
Chapter One
“Tessa! We’re leaving in twenty minutes, where are you?” My friend Kaia’s voice came blasting out of the speaker of my mobile phone and I wanted to smother her with my pillow. Well, smother the phone with my pillow at least. Cracking an eye open I peeked at the glaring green lit numbers. It was five minutes to six, what was her problem?
Then I lurched up. It was five minutes to six, I’d overslept! Telling Kaia I’d be at her place in ten minutes I scrubbed my teeth and face, almost using the toothpaste as my facewash, threw my toiletries in a bag, and grabbed the bag I’d thankfully packed the night before. It was vacation time and I’d almost missed it.
I looked down at the clothes I’d thrown on, a conservative button up top in a shade of electric green that was about as wild as my wardrobe got, black slacks, and shoes my other friend Cora called “the erection crushers”, and sighed. I’d promised the girls I’d wear some of the new clothes I’d bought but they were packed up and I didn’t have time to change. I only had five more minutes to get to Kaia’s house if we wanted to hit the road and get to the Singing Stones Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains we were heading to on time. I wanted to miss the morning traffic in Atlanta and only had a few minutes to spare.
Hoping I wouldn’t get caught speeding, I floored the gas pedal of my SUV and drove away from my home, hoping I’d turned everything off and locked all of the windows and doors. I was singing a version of the Mad Hatters frantic cries about not being late to myself and kind of felt like Alice after she fell down the rabbit hole. The world was surreal without coffee and breakfast, something I’d have to rectify along the way but not just now, I needed to pick up my girls.
I finally pulled up to Kaia’s house with a screech of protesting brakes as I threw my foot on the pedal. Cora and Kaia were at the curb, looking at me in disbelief and awe. I never drove like this, I was never late, and I was certainly never unpredictable. At 28 I was one of the most conservative, mature, “together” people I knew. I dressed to suit my job and to garner respect, I’d paid off most of my student loans and was now working to save up for a house, I owned my own car that I bought on my own because my credit rating was excellent, and I was always on time for work.
I rolled down a window as Cora and Kaia stood there, still gaping at me.
“Yes, I kn
ow. The world has just ended, hell has indeed frozen over, and yes, there are probably zombies roaming the earth as we speak. Get in before they find you.” My joke fell on stunned ears but the other two women, my best friends and coworkers, finally got into the car after loading their luggage. Kaia sat up front while Cora climbed into one of the back seats.
“So what happened?” Kaia asked after five minutes of silence. She was looking at me as if she was afraid I’d go off, or perhaps would spontaneously combust.
“I stayed up late reading that horror book you gave me. Then my alarm didn’t go off. So here we are, on time but I still feel like I’m supposed to be rushing. This isn’t a good start to our day.”
“Girl, we’re fine, slow down. If we get stuck in traffic, we get stuck in traffic.” Cora spoke up from the back seat, her fingers already busy clattering on her phone. I had to guess she was blogging this part already.
With a slight smile, I looked at my two friends and pulled into our favourite fast-food restaurant for some country ham biscuits and coffee.
“We’re going to be huge when this vacation is over.” Kaia protested but I noticed she didn’t turn her biscuit away.
I drove away from the window and back onto the interstate, my biscuit almost gone already. Kaia and Cora are my two best friends, beautiful, intelligent, and excellent educators. We are as different as day and night though, both physically and mentally. Even our personalities are different but somehow that brought us all closer together and made our circle of friends even stronger.
Kaia is half African American and half Caucasian, her skin a light coffee color with dark brown, almost black hair. She’s tall, well over my five foot six, and athletic but with exotic features that make her a stunning beauty at 27 years old. Combine all of that with her clear grey eyes and she is simply stunning. I often stared at her in wonder at just how perfectly symmetrical and beautiful she is, both on the inside and out.
And Cora! I glanced back at my friend in the rear-view mirror. Cora was about three inches shorter than I, and much thinner than my plush frame, but she was gutsy, beautiful, and didn’t put up with anybody’s junk. Cora could provide for herself and now that she was pregnant she’d become almost fierce about her independence. I think she was even more “with it” at 25 than I had been. The girl was going places if her pregnancy didn’t slow her down.
The baby’s father ran like a track star when he found out about the baby, breaking Cora’s heart. He’d apparently fled back to Ireland, too cowardly to stick around and take care of his own child. But Cora had me and Kaia, she’d be fine.
Cora was gorgeous in her own right. Copper red hair that just gleamed in the sunlight, with tumultuous green eyes that could never decide if they wanted to be a silvery green or a brownish green. The color changed with Cora’s mood and only highlighted just how beautiful she was.
I, on the other hand, had your average light blond hair, dark blue eyes, and was overweight. An avid walker I was often frustrated by my inability to shift some of my weight. Despite my unmarried status, I looked like your average housewife with a conservative streak that bordered on obsession. I hated showing any skin that might be deemed inappropriate and would often wear light jackets even in the summer. In Georgia that can be a very foolish choice.
I didn’t like to draw attention to myself, though, and this made dating, much less finding a life-partner, very hard to do. If I’d lose ten more pounds, you’d be able to see that my face was more pointed than round, but it just wouldn’t move. Kaia had suggested seeing a doctor about it and I was considering it. I hated the way I looked but there was nothing I could do about it. So I hid.
Kaia and Cora had made me promise that on this vacation I wasn’t going to hide, however. I even had a two piece bathing suit in my suitcase, though it wasn’t as tiny as the ones Cora and Kaia had likely brought with them. I had shorts, and short sleeved shirts, skirts that only went as far as my knees, and I’d even brought some sexy lingerie, instead of my usual cotton and serviceable sets.
Our motto on this vacation was “laissez le bon temps rouler”. No, we weren’t going to New Orleans, and we weren’t going to Vegas, but we were going on vacation and the good times had to roll. It’s what we were going for. And if I met a guy, I told myself, I met a guy. And then the good times might indeed roll!
Chuckling to myself I took the exit we’d planned to stop at and drove us into the world’s largest baby store. We’d plotted stops along the way, so that we could check in by eleven without having to wait, and this was the first of them. I wasn’t looking forward to an hour spent in a baby store, looking at cribs and diaper sets, but it was Cora’s choice.
Three hours later we were pulling into the parking lot of the resort and wondering how we were going to get home if we bought anything else. We’d bought baby clothes for Cora, hiking gear for Kaia and me, and some mirrors for my hallway at a handmade furniture store that I simply couldn’t live without. My SUV was full! Kaia and I went to the back of the vehicle to do some juggling to get our luggage out while Cora giggled in her seat.
“I guess we should have waited for the shopping part until we were on our way home. But you guys got me such lovely things! I’m going to love wearing those maternity tops when it’s time!” Cora was so enthralled with her daydream about her new tops that she didn’t notice we’d got out the luggage and were waiting for her.
“Come on girly, get a move on. I thought I was the slow one today?” I called out to her.
Sticking out her hand Cora giggled when I took it. She was only four months along, and barely showing, but she was already having difficulty moving around. I kissed her cheek as she got out, and we all moved into the resort.
The exterior looked like a four floor wood cabin with a pine façade and dark green tiling. With lots of windows, we could see that the place had great views of the mountains and the balconies on the front would be a great place to spend a peaceful moment during our vacations. We each had our own room and we couldn’t wait to get in them. We’d wanted the rooms with the Jacuzzis but the price was just too far out of our budgets so we’d settled for rooms with views.
We walked into the reception area, a waterfall and the sound of some mellow blue grass music in the background, and went to the smiling woman that greeted us from the middle of the room at the reception desk.
“How may I help you today ladies?” The woman in her mid-thirties with dark brown hair asked. Her hair was pulled back into a bun and she had on an outfit I’d call a light business suit. Her demeanor matched the black color of her business suit, she frowned through her question and looked pained as we rolled up our cases on the polished marble floor.
“I reserved three rooms for the next two weeks, my name is Tessa Johnson, this is the print out I was told to bring with me.” I handed over the paper with a barcode on it and tried to smile at the woman but she wouldn’t even look at me.
With a huff the older woman scanned the code and then made more unhappy noises as she clicked through the computer’s tabs.
“Nope, sorry, you’re registered for next week. Have a nice day.” The woman turned away as if she’d already dismissed us from her mind, but I protested before she got far.
“Excuse me. Excuse me ma’am!” I called out to her retreating back. I was normally calm and placid but this woman’s attitude was simply rude and uncalled for. I was on the verge of tears and losing my cool. After a hectic morning and a long drive this attitude was not what I’d hoped to be met with.
I could take cool and impersonal, I could take even somewhat rude, but this callous disregard for customers was beyond the pale!
“Excuse me!” I called out the words in a louder, sterner voice this time. I saw a man turn in our direction but didn’t care.
The woman turned back, her eyebrow raised as if she’d been called back to speak with a disgusting bug.
“Yes? What do you need? I told you, you’re registered for next week.” Her tone was cold.
<
br /> Mine wasn’t so cold.
“Look, I don’t know if you have PMS, a migraine, or if your dog just died but your attitude sucks. There has obviously been a mistake, look, even the printout says I reserved three rooms for this week and next. I expect you to sort it.” My tone was still sweet but it dripped with venom.
If the woman’s eyebrow went any higher it would be in her hairline! But up it went and my tone seemed to set her off even more.
“Look lady, we’re booked up. Your reservations are for next week, the computer says so! Now go away!” She leaned over the desk and actually growled at me. “Or I’ll call security.”
“Lordes, that is enough. Go to my office at once.” The man that had been watching us came over to the desk and brushed past the woman. “No, in fact, just go clear out your cubby, clock out, and don’t let me catch you back on the premises.”
“But Hale! These women…” But her words were cut off.
“I don’t care what your excuse is. What I just overheard is uncalled for. Now go. Before I call security.” His glare brooked no argument and the woman actually seemed to shrink on her four inch heels.
The woman quickly tottered away and the man turned to us. We were all standing there stunned, our mouths hanging open. Between her attitude and his sudden interruption of her meltdown we’d had quite the show.
“My apologies for Miss Fischer.” His hand flicked dismissively in the direction the woman had departed. “She’s been causing some problems lately. Now, if you ladies can forgive us and would agree to stay on at the resort for your stay in Adam Falls I’ll be glad to upgrade your rooms to,” he paused to look at the screen, “three of our best suites.”
Cade (Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 2) Page 19
