The Bear Project

by Doris O'Connor

  Cole blanched when he realized what she was doing.

  "What? Is something wrong? Are you in pain? What? Jesus, Emmi, talk to me."

  He grasped hold of her wrists and dropped to his knees in front of her in a seeming effort to get closer to her belly.

  "No, no, it's not that. It's just … here, give me your hand."

  Emmi twisted her wrists free, grasped one of his and placed his large hand right where she felt the movement.

  "There, can you feel that? He's moving. I mean, I know he moves, but I can feel him. I can feel our baby, Cole."

  ****

  Emmi looked so happy right now he wanted to bottle that smile, so he could bring it out on days when life was glum. Tears shone in her eyes, and she kept on mumbling to herself. Cole wasn't entirely sure he wasn't going a little misty eyed himself, as their son twisted and squirmed under his hand. He didn't have the heart to tell Emmi that he'd already felt the little fellow move, and besides, experiencing this with her, witnessing her joy meant more to him that he could say.

  It also reaffirmed what he'd always instinctively felt to be true. This was what having a baby should be like. Two people who loved each other creating a life together.

  Loved. The truth hit him square in the face. It was just as well he was already on his knees, for he highly doubted his legs would have the strength to carry him right now. As he looked up at her, their gazes locked, and he sat spellbound. Mating bond or not, he did love this woman with all his heart and soul.

  The words were on the tip of his tongue, but she still didn't know everything she needed to, and he wouldn't, couldn't, declare his feelings for her until she did. Somehow he knew it would hurt less if she chose to walk away, and he hadn't worn his feelings on his sleeve.

  He dropped a kiss on her tummy instead and scrambled back up to his feet. Emmi still didn't move, and he wrapped his arms around her and held her until she sighed into his chest.

  "Oh, he stopped. Should he be this strong at this stage, Cole? Should I phone Doctor Wilson and tell her what's just happened?"

  "If it makes you feel better, sugar, then ring her, but I can tell you, that he's just fine. His heartbeat is strong, and judging by the way he was pummeling your insides, he's perfectly happy."

  He released her and nudged her chin up to make her look at him. "There is no such thing as should in this case. Shifter pregnancies can be unpredictable at the best of times, let alone… Well, let's get you through to the living room and sat down. There's something I have to tell you, and you should probably sit down for that."

  Emmi frowned, and he wished with all his might that he didn't have to have this conversation now, not when she was still glowing with happiness from the inside out.

  "That sounds way too ominous. Maybe I don’t want to know after all. It's shifter business, after all. Nothing to do with me, right?"

  He had to smile at the hopeful tone in her voice, and he shook his head.

  "Sugar, you're my mate. You’re carrying my baby. This is very much your business. I've kept you out of it until now, but time is running out. You need to know what's expected of me and how it affects us."

  Emmi swallowed hard and straightened her shoulders, and he stepped away from her and held out his hand.

  She stared at it as though it was some poisonous snake out to strike her dead, but she did take it with a rueful smile.

  "I must be insane, and heaven help me if you don't tell me all this time, I'll scream, and take the clippers to your bear's fur, or something."

  God, how he loved her sass. Cole tugged her along and into the living room. For the second time since entering his home Emmi stopped dead. This time round her attention seemed to focus on the portrait of his parents that hung over the old fashioned fire place.

  It showed them in full ceremonial council robes and was taken shortly after their wedding.

  "You look so much like them, Cole, it's quite uncanny," she said and then sat down on the leather settee. The corner seating arrangement dominated the room at one end, and was big and comfortable enough to sleep on. Cole had fallen asleep there many times in the past, pre-Emmi, when he could actually sleep.

  "So, let me guess. They were at some sort official function when this was taken?" At his tight nod she sighed. "They were part of this council I keep hearing about?"

  Again he nodded, and a brief smile crossed her face. She pulled her legs up and tucked them under herself, and held one of the scatter cushions that came with the settee to her midriff. The move was such a subconsciously defensive act, his bear growled his approval. Emmi would stand her ground and defend their baby until her dying breath, as would Cole.

  "Yes, sugar, they were. At their death I automatically inherited their status. The council is made up of those shifters that can trace their ancestry back to the beginning of our existence. There are only a handful of families who can do that. In my case the line ends with me. Or at least it did until little man there."

  He nodded toward her belly, and was rewarded with a tight smile from Emmi.

  "So that's what Maria meant with her statement that you were shifter royalty?" Emmi asked. She frowned, and he could almost see the wheels turning in her head.

  "It's a simplified and thus incorrect statement, but I guess, yes, if we worked in that way."

  "You don't?" she asked.

  "No, Emmi, the leading families sit at the top, but there is a whole network of council members with equal votes. Decisions are always reached via the majority vote and in the best interest of all of our kind, or at least that's the intention. It doesn't always work out that way."

  He couldn't quite keep the bitterness out of his voice, and of course she picked up on that. Emmi worried her bottom lip with her little teeth and regarded him thoughtfully.

  "What do you mean by that?" she asked.

  "Take Creek Fells for example. The decision had been made to eradicate the problem once and for all, but you know that. You overheard me after all."

  Emmi flinched and grasped that blasted cushion tighter to her body. Cole never thought he'd be jealous of a damn cushion, but he had to restrain himself from crossing the distance to the settee and ripping the thing out of her hands. Instead he continued with his explanation.

  "It took all of my influence at the council to get that decision overturned. You were right in a way, when you said it was shifter racism, but there is a good reason for that. Born shifters have become what your zoological society would class as an endangered species. Over the last thirty years birth rates have been declining rapidly, and if they continue as they are we will become extinct within the next few generations. Weres, on the other hand, are thriving. When all it takes is one bite to turn a human, conversion is easy, if not always ethical. It certainly doesn't bring the best results, as you'll have seen in Creek Fells."

  Cole had to clear his throat before continuing. Emmi's white knuckled grip on the cushion had lessened somewhat, but she was too still, and for once he couldn't read her at all.

  "I see, so Anastasia's triplets are a big deal, right?"

  "They're a huge deal. The first triplets born in living memory, though the big cats seem to have the best fertility rate at present."

  "Who has the worst?" she asked.

  "Bears."

  ****

  She couldn't have heard him right, surely?

  "So, what does that mean for our baby? And if bears have the worst fertility rates, why did I fall pregnant so easily?"

  Cole's smile didn't reach his eyes.

  "I can't answer that, sugar. And lord knows I've quizzed our scientists about this, but they couldn't give me an answer either. Not without tests, and there is no fucking way I'll subject you or our baby to any damn tests. I know he's a bear shifter. I can sense it. Fuck, any shifter around can sense it. He's a strong little guy, and that's good enough for me. They can go and fucking hang themselves."

  This made no sense, yet it made perfect sense, and Maria's request not to tell
him the real reason why she wanted Emmi to bring him to the celebration for her niece and nephews took on a sinister edge. Maria had been afraid of his reaction, so that could only mean one thing.

  "Scientists? Tests?" Her heart wanted to screech no, but her analytical mind and years of experience as an animal conservationist kicked in instead. "Those are the protocols the council has put in place to combat this?" she asked.

  Cole ran a hand through his hair, telling her how agitated he was, and he crunched his teeth.

  "We have a team of scientists trying to work out why fertility rates are in such drastic decline. They've come up empty-handed so far, so in the meantime they have set up the mating project."

  His bear growled, and Cole shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans, and she didn't need her rapidly increasing senses to figure out how uncomfortable he was discussing this.

  "I take it this mating project does not rely on the mating bond, which I understand is a somewhat mystical connection. Not every shifter gets to experience it in their lifetime, right? Those that do are the lucky ones."

  She knew it was. Emmi had spent hours poring over the literature Doctor Wilson had pointed her to in an effort to understand this connection she shared with Cole.

  His harsh laugh bounced round the room, and he started to pace again like a caged panther. Though strictly speaking it should be caged bear, she supposed.

  "No, they don't, and this so called project doesn't give a flying fuck about the bond. If you're a pure blood shifter you're simply expected to impregnate as many females of your kind as you can in the hope that some of those pregnancies stick. You would not believe the pressure I've been under to choose a mate, as I've refused to impregnate anyone, especially after the last she-bear the council chose for me."

  Emmi didn't like the sound of that, and she glared at him.

  "What she-bear? What the fuck is going on?"

  Cole shook his head and looked grim.

  "Nothing for you to worry over, sugar. It's dealt with. Lissa got rather possessive, and I told her it was never going to work. She wasn't my mate, simple as that. I got a lot of stick for that, of course. Nothing I couldn't handle, and my position helped. There are those who have no choice but to comply. It's even worse for the females."

  An ice cold hand squeezed Emmi's heart as she remembered Maria's agitation.

  "Females like Maria, you mean?"

  Cole stopped pacing, and some of that pressure on her heart lifted, when he sat down next to her and enveloped her clammy hand in his.

  "Maria's father sits on the council, and this has provided her with a modicum of security, but, yes, her time to find her own mate is running out. So, if she's told you something, then now would be a good time to share it. I can't help her if I don't know the full facts."

  "And you would help her?" Emmi had to ask, even though in her heart she knew the answer already.

  "In a heartbeat, Emmi. I never believed this was the way forward, and I'm even more convinced now that it isn't. Anastasia's triplets, our little guy, they've been created through the mating bond. I can't prove that, but that's my take on it, and there are a growing number of shifters who feel the same. If we're to beat this failing fertility rate then just throwing random sex in the ring in the hope that some of it will stick is not the way forward."

  His amber eyes seared her skin with the intensity of his gaze, yet she couldn't look away. He held her spellbound, and she couldn't get the words to form past the huge lump clogging up her throat, so she just shook her head.

  Cole smiled and framed her face with his large hands.

  "I would go as far as to say that mixing the bloodlines doesn't matter either. Not when you're true mates. You're human, yet we defy the odds. That's got to mean something, wouldn't you say?"

  Emmi croaked out a yes, making his smile deepen. He really looked good enough to eat when he did that.

  "So, Maria, she didn't share anything, or you will not tell me? I swear I won’t use this against her. I was sick to death with the whole project long before I met you. I've always wanted what my parents had. They were true mates, and far more than that, they loved each other to the exclusion of all else. At times, even I felt like an intruder."

  He slipped his fingers over her mouth when she was going to interrupt him.

  "Shh, no, let me get this off my chest, sugar. It wasn't a bad thing, growing up with that sort of love as a role model, and Mum always made sure I was included. She told me that I would know when I met my true mate, and to hold out for her, and you know, she was right."

  His voice cracked with barely suppressed emotion, and Emmi struggled to breathe. This was Cole talking, not his bear, and she could sense the sincerity pouring off him. It filled all the uncertain places in her heart and soul, and when her eyes filled with tears she didn't even try to blink them away.

  Cole kissed them off her face. Tiny butterfly kisses that started at her eyelids and left her skin on fire for his touch, until she grasped his tee and pulled him closer.

  He growled low in his throat, but instead of taking advantage, he pulled away.

  "Don't get me wrong, sugar. I've had plenty of women, human and shifter alike over the years, but my heart was never engaged—until you."

  He took one of her hands and placed it on his chest. His heartbeat thundered under her fingertips, and his eyes darkened when she inhaled sharply. His earthy, male, intoxicating scent intensified until every feminine cell in her body sighed in submission.

  "I don't know anything about what Maria is up to, apart from the fact that she's seeing someone."

  Cole didn't say anything, but his eyes widened and he nodded at her to continue.

  "Well, two people, actually."

  Cole laughed and rested his other hand on the base of her neck. With barely a hair’s breadth width between them their breaths mingled, and all Emmi wanted to do was to lean in and kiss him, but she couldn't move. He had her head effectively pinned. His fingertips massaged the base of her skull, and shivers went down her spine at the simple contact. When he exerted pressure to tip her head sideways, she put up no resistance. He inhaled against her neck and nuzzled the sensitive area just under her ear, and Emmi moaned.

  "Two, eh, greedy." His lips curved into a smile against her skin, and Emmi, too, grinned.

  "That's what I said to her, but I don't know who they are, or I'd tell you."

  He went still at her whispered words and pulled slightly away to look at her.

  "Thank you, sugar."

  His smile turned sinful. It was enough to charm her knickers right off of her, but it was the emotion in his amazing eyes that pulled her under. Emmi was tired of fighting this. She needed to connect in the most basic and primal way possible, and she needed to do that right now.

  "Now, that we got all that out of the way, can we please fuck?"

  His bear's growl in answer trembled through her, and she closed her eyes to savor the sensations it caused all over her body. Tingles of need and lust that travelled across her nerve endings until everything centered in her throbbing clit.

  "No, we can't, sugar."

  Chapter Sixteen

  Cole couldn't help but tease her a little, and sure enough her eyes flew open and she glared at him.

  "Why ever not? Damn you, Cole, I want you. I'm pregnant not ill, and I'm so fucking horny I'm going to combust. This is not funny, dammit, and you—" she grasped his rock hard cock through the jeans and squeezed. "You seem more than capable, so stop denying us both and man up already."

  She jumped when his bear growled, and Cole allowed his claws to run out. He traced one along her collar bone and down into her cleavage, until he found the little hard nubbins straining for his touch. He flicked her nipples with his thumbs and drew lazy circles around them with his claws, until Emmi's breath came in short gasps and she dug her own nails into his thighs.

  "Cole, please."

  Her breathless moan shot straight to his balls, and he kissed her. Her u
nique flavor exploded on his tongue, and his bear almost purred as Cole took his time exploring every part of her mouth. Emmi kissed him back with an increasing urgent desperation, seemingly intent on hurrying him, but the more she pushed the more he pulled back. Emmi whimpered her distress, and his bear itched to be let loose to dive at the sweet nectar spilling from her pussy. Cole knew she would be wringing wet for him, and his cock throbbed with the need to bury himself balls deep within her sweet and willing body. Instead he took his time, teasing her, and when he finally withdrew from her mouth with a bite to her bottom lip, the inherent caveman in him smiled at the unfocused look in her eyes. Emmi leant toward him and reached out to touch his face. The feather light embrace sent his bear wild, and it was his turn to groan when she bunched her hands in his hair and then ran her fingers through it. She continued her gentle exploration of him with her hands and lips, as she leant forward and ran her tongue across his chin, and down over his Adam’s apple. Cole swallowed hard, but he went willingly when she pushed against his shoulders and he reclined on the settee.

  Emmi's eyes gleamed in victory, and he let her have this moment, as she undid the buttons of his shirt one by one, and then kissed each bit of his skin that she exposed. Cole dug his hands into the soft leather to stop himself from taking control, and he crunched his teeth together when she flicked her tongue over his nipples, whilst her fingers continued to fumble with the last of the shirt buttons.

  "Dammit, why is this so difficult?"

  He grasped her hand to stop the frantic movement of her fingers.

  "Want some help there, sugar?" he asked and winked at her.

  Emmi gasped when he ripped the rest of the shirt off him. The remaining buttons popped and pinged across the room, and he threw the shirt over his head and lay back down with a smirk.

  "Now, what are you going to do?" he asked and put his hands behind his head with a nonchalance he was far from feeling. In truth, he was in serious danger of giving himself blue balls, and he fully expected to have zip marks permanently engrained on his dick.