Her Hero Was A Bear

by Amy Star

  challenger for him in a second.

  He could, but Sabine was not going to give him that opportunity. She hadn’t made it that far just to get her neck snapped as an afterthought.

  In a flurry of motion, she bolted back to her feet, wings spread and flapping rapidly, so it almost seemed as if she was mocking the fact that he couldn’t do that just then. Her feet left the ground as she kicked at Genos’s face, forcing him to lean back or lose an eye, and thus forcing him to give her space to stand back up. She wasn’t done, though.

  Shrieking like an enraged banshee, Sabine launched herself at him, wings spread, teeth bared, and talons flexing.

  As Sabine latched onto Genos’s face with the claws on her wing joints, her talons digging into the scales of his neck, she reared her head back, prepared to strike. Genos tossed his head back and forth, trying and failing to dislodge her and toss her off, and his good wing beat fitfully at the air, though all four of his legs remained on the ground. His tail lashed at the air as he struggled, until finally he simply transformed once again.

  With a sharp, startled squawk, Sabine fell aside as her target was abruptly much smaller. She landed in a heap on the grass and scrambled awkwardly back to her feet as Genos rapidly backed away, only to come to a halt as he backed straight into Mitch’s suddenly very human chest.

  Mitch couldn’t see the look on Genos’s face just then, but he could imagine it, as Genos’s shoulders tensed and rose in alarm. He was going to transform again. That much was clear. Or at least, he wanted to transform again. He wasn’t going to get the chance to do that, though.

  Mitch lifted his hands, grabbed the sides of Genos’s head, and with a few quick motions, he cranked Genos’s neck hard to the left. There was a sick snapping sound as bones broke, and when Mitch let him go, Genos tumbled down to the ground.

  He didn’t get back up.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Everything seemed very quiet in that moment as they stared at Genos’s body in quiet expectation, waiting for something to happen, though it never did. There were a few last, lingering twitches, but he did not get back up. There were no last words. He was simply gone. Melissa couldn’t even say he looked peaceful or that he looked like he was sleeping. His eyes were still open, staring sightlessly into the distance, and his neck was cocked at an unnatural angle. Of the myriad of ways that what remained of Genos could be described, ‘peaceful’ was not the first one Melissa would jump to.

  “That was…abrupt,” Jasper remarked eventually, and his voice seemed far too loud as it broke the silence, like a gunshot on an otherwise peaceful night. He was right, but the observation still seemed a little out of place, as if it was too simple of a way to sum everything up when there was a dead body right there, and all of them were responsible for putting it there.

  Even Melissa was partially responsible for putting it there, and it was a heavy thought that she was not looking forward to dwelling on to any extent.

  “No complaints, though,” Melissa added just to try to further break the oppressive atmosphere, though she couldn’t deny that she felt a bit odd. Once again, she couldn’t help but to observe that there was a dead body on the ground only a few feet away from her. True, she hadn’t known him before that day, but even so, he had been a person. She couldn’t bring herself to regret his death after everything he had tried to do, but she couldn’t bring herself to feel good about it

  either.

  She brushed the thought aside, turning her attention instead to Sabine, who stared back at her

  expectantly, waiting for her to say something.

  “Can you deal with this…?” Melissa asked slowly, gesturing vaguely towards Genos’s body. She wasn’t sure how one would go about getting rid of a were-dragon’s body. If they could be burned when they were in human form, Melissa didn’t know. If the body would instead need to be

  buried or sunken in a river, she was clueless about it. It seemed logical to simply ask another were-dragon, especially when there was one standing just a few feet away.

  To her relief, Sabine dipped her head once in confirmation, and she leaned down, carefully picking the body up with her jaws closed around one upper arm. Using the claw of one wing, she picked her bag up from the ground and hooked the strap over one of her horns. Were it not for the body dangling limply from her jaws, she would have looked truly absurd, and even under the circumstances, she still managed to look a little comical.

  She tipped her head in their direction once again before she turned and started loping into the woods. It was a few moments later before she rose into the air, her form shrinking and fading into the distance.

  Finally, after another few moments of silence, Melissa decided slowly, “I think it’s about time to head home. Wouldn’t you say?”

  Granted, figuring how to do that was easier said than done, all things considered. Jasper heaved a slow, exasperated sigh as Melissa looked at him expectantly. He dropped to a knee and made a gesture that seemed to translate to “well, come on,’’ and within a moment, he was carrying Melissa on his back once again.

  With one hand on his shoulder, she pointed up the mountain. “I live not too far from here,” she explained, her other hand landing on his other shoulder so she could hang on. There wasn’t really any risk of Jasper dropping her or even getting tired from carrying her, but the fact remained that he was only barely taller than her, and he probably weighed less than her, and so carrying her was still more than a little awkward.

  Mitch transformed once again, giving himself a shake once he was settled on all fours, and he loped into the trees. Jasper adjusted his hold on the backs of Melissa’s thighs, boosting her upwards slightly before he took off at a determined sprint up the mountain.

  *

  Mitch transformed in the yard and jogged his way inside to find clothing that wasn’t ripped to shreds and scattered all over the woods, though it wasn’t as if Melissa had any neighbors who were close enough to see him while he was naked. There were other houses on the mountain, true enough, but they were well and truly isolated either way.

  Melissa waved goodbye to Jasper and watched him zip away down the driveway and to the road, before she stepped inside, meeting Mitch in the living room. He had yet to put on any clothing and seemed to have stalled out in the living room as he let the day’s events catch up with him. Melissa could understand the feeling.

  It seemed so strange. After everything that had happened that afternoon, it felt so surreal to simply be standing in her house again, as if everything was normal.

  Of course, it didn’t feel like everything was normal. It didn’t feel like anything was normal in that moment, as if whoever was at the world’s helm had decided to pull hard to port without warning, leaving everyone staggering and stumbling and trying to find their footing once again.

  Everything felt a bit fuzzy still. As if she didn’t fit right in her skin. She felt like she could run a marathon and wrestle a bear even larger than Mitch, and then still climb the rest of the way up the mountain to the very peak of it afterwards. Just judging by the way Mitch paced across the living room like some sort of caged animal and tapped his fingers against his thighs, Melissa was willing to bet he felt much the same way as she did.

  With adrenaline buzzing beneath her skin like a live wire, she closed the distance between them. As she walked, she pulled her t-shirt over her head and dropped it on the floor, and her bra followed shortly after it. When she was standing scarcely a few inches from him, she stepped out of her shoes, kicking aside first one and then the other.

  She reached for the waistband of her pants, but before her fingers could touch the button or the zipper, Mitch pushed her hands aside. He hooked two fingers of each hand beneath the waist band and tugged her closer, until there was hardly any space between them, and for a moment, he simply let his hands explore, fingertips sliding over smooth skin and cupping her breasts.

  It seemed to take an eternity before he reached for her waistband once again, deftly
popping the button and tugging the zipper down. He hooked his fingers under the waistband again, that time to tug downwards, drawing the fabric down her thighs to her knees, where it fell down to puddle around her feet until she stepped out and kicked the pants aside.

  Mitch’s nudity meant it was already apparent that his cock was beginning to swell as his gaze roved over Melissa’s body. He pressed his hand to her already damp sex, stroking her through the fabric of her panties at first before he hooked one finger around the seat of them and pulled them downwards with a single swift motion. They too fell to the floor to be kicked aside, discarded with the rest of Melissa’s clothing.

  That was exactly what they both wanted, though. It seemed ridiculous to pretend otherwise.

  They didn’t make it to the bed that evening. It didn’t seem like there was much of a point, really. They were already in the living room, there was a perfectly serviceable couch just waiting for them, and it was only a few steps away, while the bed was considerably farther away and behind the bedroom door.

  Mitch picked Melissa up around the middle, just long enough to move her over to the couch and lay her down on her back on the cushions. She scooted herself over as Mitch followed her down, his knees framing her legs. When she reached up and threaded her fingers into his hair, he leaned down easily as she tugged, until their lips met. It was not a slow or gentle kiss, as their tongues slid together, and Melissa’s grip on Mitch’s hair tightened. His hands tightened around her hips, pulling her flush against him until there was hardly even space to breathe between them.

  They kissed as if they were trying to devour each other, until they had no choice but to break apart, chests heaving for breath for only a moment before they came together again with a click of teeth, until it seemed less like they were kissing and more like they were biting, and Mitch’s erection, red and leaking at the tip, was digging into Melissa’s side.

  After that, neither of them had the patience to draw things out for much longer. They only had so long before the adrenaline crash hit and left them too exhausted to do anything, and that seemed like a waste of perfectly good energy.

  Mitch’s hands slid from Melissa’s hips to the backs of her thighs, where his fingers curled around them. He urged her legs up and pushed them towards her chest, very nearly bending her in half. Her hands fisted against the couch cushions, nails scratching at the fabric as Mitch lined himself up with her entrance. He paused for only a second after that, glancing towards her face as he gauged her reaction, before he thrust forward. The head of his cock breached her, and she gasped in a breath as if she had spent her whole life suffocating, and in one quick motion, Mitch sheathed himself within her.

  His hands shifted higher along her legs until they were wrapped around the backs of her knees, pressing them towards her shoulders. He drew out until only the head of his cock was still trapped within her slick heat, before he pressed back in with enough force that she began to slide along the cushions, and she had to cling onto the cushion beneath her to keep herself from being pushed into the arm of the couch.

  Her spine flexed with each thrust, arching as he drew out and rounding as he thrust back in. Her head fell back, baring her throat, until the top of her head was pressed against the cushion. Mitch took advantage of the moment, bearing more weight down on her legs as he leaned down, trailing harsh, biting kisses along the length of her throat, until he sucked a bruise against one of her collarbones.

  He continued from there, his pace slowing slightly as his grip on her legs eased, and he kissed his way down her chest, though each thrust felt deeper and firmer as if in tradeoff. His lips found one nipple, and he circled the tip of his tongue around it until it hardened, and he closed his lips around it, teasing it with his tongue and teeth, until Melissa was whimpering quietly beneath him. She gasped in a breath when he shifted his attention to the neglected nipple, dragging his tongue over it before he closed his lips around it.

  There was no warning when Melissa came, as nothing tumbling past her lips resembled words at that point. She tossed her head to the side, and every muscle tensed, until she swore her back might snap and her nails might puncture right through the couch cushion. Mitch kept thrusting throughout her orgasm, drawing it out as much as he could, and then longer still. After all, he had yet to come himself.

  Slowly, Melissa went lax beneath him, panting slowly as he kept pounding into her. It didn’t take long, though, before she felt that familiar heat building in her core once again, and she sighed out a quiet moan. Taking it as encouragement, Mitch sped up again.

  Her second orgasm was quicker than the first, abrupt and brief, though it left her shivering in its wake. And still, Mitch was thrusting, though at last his rhythm was beginning to falter slightly.

  Even so, he kept going, just long enough for Melissa to feel her body begin to respond yet again. When Mitch finally came, with a low groan like he was being kicked in the chest, Melissa was hovering so close to that peak for a third time, and she let out a quiet, disappointed whimper as Mitch leaned back, his softening cock slipping free.

  There was no reason to be disappointed, though. Mitch leaned down, folding one forearm along the backs of her legs to keep holding them up and out of the way, and his other hand reached for her chest. He traced his fingers around her nipples in slow, teasing circles, first one and then the other, pinching and twisting one sharply before switching to give the other one attention, until finally he began to run his fingers down her stomach.

  His hand slowed as it came to her clit, red and warm and wet, and he rubbed at her clit with short, firm motions, before he massaged it lightly between his fingers. And finally, he pressed a finger to her entrance, circling the tip of just one finger around it at first, before adding a second and then a third, before at last he pushed three fingers into her. The motions of his hand were slow and searching at first, until Melissa threw back her head with a noise that was closer to a sob than a gasp as he found just the right angle to thrust his fingers at, and he grinned at her in much the same way as a bear might smile at its prey.

  Melissa gasped and moaned with each motion of his hand, each noise getting louder until she was practically sobbing with each thrust. It didn’t take long before she came for a third time, and Mitch kept thrusting his fingers into her throughout her entire orgasm, teasing more and more out of her until finally she went limp on the couch, and his hand stilled. Slowly, he drew his fingers out of her.

  Melissa felt as if she had been squeezed out of a soda bottle after that. Everything felt distant and fuzzy, as if the air was bubbling over her skin. Her chest heaved as she gulped in each breath. Mitch said something as he let go of her legs, letting them fall limply to the couch, but the words danced out of reach. She was pretty sure he was asking if she was alright, and she nodded unsteadily as she offered a hazy, “Uh huh.”

  His hands slid along her sides for a moment, until he slid one arm beneath her shoulders and the other beneath her legs, and with hardly any effort at all, he picked her up as he stood, cradling her to his chest as if she weighed nothing.

  He was carrying her towards the bedroom. That much was pretty apparent. Shortly after that, though, Melissa stopped paying attention as her eyes slowly drifted shut, and she was well and truly asleep before they even made it into the bedroom.

  Between three orgasms and her adrenaline high wearing off, Melissa was well and truly spent. She slept calmly all through the night, immovable. It was a deep and dreamless sleep—some of the best sleep she’d had in weeks—and she only barely woke up in time to leave for work in the morning.

  Mitch laughed at her as she rushed frantically out the door. But it was a good morning, all things considered. Peaceful. As if everything on the mountain could tell that it was safer, even if it had so narrowly avoided being turned to ashes.

  *

  Life seemed strangely calm after that. To Mitch, at least. He had gotten rather accustomed to searching for the things that went bump in the night, foll
owing the trails they left, and dealing with the damage they left behind. It all seemed a bit too quiet with the threat gone. To him, at

  any rate. He was fairly sure life simply continued as it always did for everyone else. And he was glad for that, at any rate.

  Their little corner of the mountains had always been quiet. People moved there because it was quiet. Everyone else deserved the life they actually wanted, and he knew that once he adapted to not needing to be a super hero anymore, he would be thrilled that the status quo had reasserted itself.

  Well, almost. Not everything was back to the way it had always been.

  The closet in Melissa’s bedroom was bigger than one person would ever be able to use without being completely obsessed with clothing, and that was something Melissa would likely never be; she was most comfortable in jeans and t-shirts and only seemed to own three outfits for formal occasions. Mitch knew this because his clothing was also in that closet. It hadn’t even come over in shifts; he simply packed it all into a suitcase one afternoon just a few nights after they dealt with Genos and showed up at Melissa’s house with it. They had discussed him moving in, after all. It was just the logical extension of those conversations.