by Zoe Chant
Oh God, that was just typical. Of course Greg had gotten himself involved with loan sharks, or worse, the mafia or something like that. Thank God his problems weren't hers to solve anymore.
She snorted bitterly. "I wouldn't have any money even if I wanted to help you. You made sure of that," she said.
"You’ve got the money your aunt gave you,” Greg said.
"What money? She left me $200 for gas so I could take the truck into town for the farmer’s market. That would hardly pay off your debts even if I wanted to give it to you. Which I don't.”
Greg was staring at her. "You don’t know?”
"I don’t know what?” Isabella asked impatiently.
"Check your account,” Greg said.
"What the hell are you talking about?”
"Just go look,” Greg insisted.
Isabella eyed him suspiciously. "How the hell would you know what’s going on in my account anyway?”
Greg gave her a shifty look. "Does it matter?”
Great. So he'd managed to gain access to her account information somehow. She wouldn't put it past him to have gone through her trash for her bank statements. At least whatever access he had didn't seem to allow him free reign of her account, though, or he wouldn't need to beg her for whatever money he thought she had in there.
Isabella found her phone on the kitchen table and waited impatiently while it struggled to connect. Cell service was terrible out here. Finally her bank’s website loaded. She tapped over to her account and almost stopped breathing.
She hadn’t checked the account in a while, hadn’t really wanted to look at the big fat zero where her life's savings had used to be. A deposit had been made sometime in the last two weeks. Isabella stared, feeling faintly dizzy at the amount. There was a note in the memo line. With love from Sally, it said. Isabella swallowed hard.
She’d known Sally had money, of course, even if she didn’t know exactly how much. Sally lived out in the country because she loved it, not because she didn’t have any other choice. But this was a more generous gift than she could ever have imagined. It would take away her worries for years to come.
Greg was watching her, a greedy light shining in his eyes. The sickly sweet smile was still on his face.
"You see, baby? Told you you could help me out. You’re the only one who can. You have to! If I can’t give them the money back, they'll kill me!”
"Greg, if you’re actually scared for your life, you need to go to the police,” Isabella said firmly.
"I can’t go to the police,” Greg replied.
"Why not?”
"Because…” For a moment, Greg seemed to be at a loss for words.
Isabella rolled her eyes. "I knew this was about you doing something illegal. I can’t help you,” she said.
Greg’s face changed, the easy smile falling away. He reached out, snatching her wrist hard enough to hurt.
"Now listen, you selfish little-”
"Let go!” Isabella snapped, trying to yank her hand away.
The front door flew open with a tremendous crash.
Ryan stood in the doorway.
"Get away from her!” he snarled, his voice a low, dangerous growl. Isabella’s heart soared. He’d come for her after all!
Greg let go of her wrist.
"Who the hell are you?” he snapped. "This isn’t any of your business. Fuck off.”
"You were hurting her,” Ryan said. His voice was calm on the surface, but there were still the undertones of the dangerous growl in it. For the first time Greg looked scared. But of course he was too stubborn or stupid to take the easy way out and leave.
"This is none of your business,” Greg repeated. He pulled a knife out of his pocket and flipped it open, turning on Ryan. The knife glinted in the light, a shining razor sharp blade as long as his hand.
"Watch out!” Isabella yelled. She kicked Greg in the back of his knee as hard as she could. He stumbled, almost fell; and then he whirled around, turning to her, raising the knife in his hand.
Ryan let out a scream of rage that turned into a wild, inhuman roar. His massive shoulders seemed to shift and become even broader. For a moment his entire figure blurred, and then there was an enormous grizzly bear standing where he had been. The bear was tall enough that it had to hunch its massive shoulders to fit into the room at all. The back of its head brushed the ceiling. It gave another roar, loud enough that the walls of the house seemed to shake with it.
Greg screamed in terror. He huddled into the corner of the room furthest away from the bear, whimpering. Isabella didn’t miss the fact that he’d deliberately picked a place that would put Isabella between him and the bear. Her stomach turned in disgust. When the chips were down, he was nothing but a coward.
"Get out of my house,” she snarled.
The bear backed her up with a tremendous roar, swiping out with one enormous paw after Greg’s pathetic, cowering figure. Greg screamed, jumped to his feet and started running.
"I don’t ever want to see you again!” Isabella yelled after him.
And then the door fell shut, and she was alone in her house with a bear.
The bear had taken two steps away from her and gone down on all fours, cowering a little as if to make itself seem smaller. Not that it made much of a difference. She didn’t think there was any way to make a thousand pound grizzly bear look harmless.
Isabella took a long hard look at it. Was it only her imagination, or was that concern in the bear's warm brown eyes?
"Ryan?” she asked tentatively. She felt instantly ridiculous for talking to a bear. Had she completely lost it now? Was this some kind of psychotic break?
Slowly, the bear nodded. It lifted one enormous paw, waving in greeting. Isabella gave a startled little laugh.
"My God, is this—is this real? Are you real?”
The bear—Ryan—nodded.
"Wow,” Isabella said. "God, this can’t be real, right? Can I—can I touch you?”
Again, the bear nodded.
She took a tentative step towards him. He didn’t move. Another step, and another. The bear lowered his big head down, tilting his ears towards her. Isabella reached out and carefully brushed a hand over the fur behind his ears. The bear’s pelt was warm and dense and a little coarse, except directly behind the ears, where it was softer, almost fluffy. It felt real, in a way no dream possibly could. This was really happening. Ryan Steele had just turned into a bear in front of her eyes.
"Wow,” she said again.
The bear made a low rumbling sound that was probably the closest a bear could come to laughing. It gently nudged her hand. She started petting it again, scruffing her hand through the thick fur.
"This is amazing,” Isabella said. "I’ve got so many questions. Can you turn back?”
The bear nodded. It lifted one big paw and gently, carefully nudged her back a step before it shifted again. She tried to watch more carefully this time, but it was almost as if her brain didn’t quite want to process what her eyes were seeing. There was a blur, and then it was Ryan standing there instead of the bear. Miraculously, his clothes had survived the transformation—which was a shame, really.
"Wow. Oh my God,” Isabella said, letting out a startled laugh. "You—You’re a werebear.”
"A bear shifter,” Ryan said, in his low rumbling bass voice. Now that she knew what he was, she could almost hear an echo of the bear’s growl in it. "I’m so sorry. I never meant to scare you. Are you all right?”
"I’m fine. My God, that was amazing. You saved me! I don’t know what Greg would have done if you hadn’t shown up.”
"Who was he?” Ryan asked. Again, the bear's growl was coming through loud and clear in his voice.
"My ex. God, that damn scumbag. I can’t believe I ever thought I loved that guy. He used to be so good to me! I really thought he loved me.”
"He lied to you. You couldn’t have known,” Ryan said. "It wasn’t your fault.”
He gave a low laugh. "At lea
st you didn’t make the mistake of marrying him before you found out what he was like.”
"Bethany—is that why she left you? Because of the—" she paused, making a vague gesture with her hands. "—the bear thing?
"Yes,” Ryan said.
"Is that the big secret she told me you were hiding?”
"Yeah. I told her the truth when we got engaged. She told me she didn’t mind.” His voice cracked a little. "I thought she was all right with it. I thought she was happy." He sighed.
"She started pushing for a really fast wedding after that. She told me she wanted to elope. It surprised me at the time, because she’s always been a pretty high maintenance lady. But I loved her, and I thought it was romantic. We got married two weeks later, with no witnesses, nothing. No pre-nup, either. The minute the papers were signed she told me I was a dirty animal, that I disgust her, and the least she deserved as an apology was the half of my assets I had just signed over to her.”
Isabella gasped.
"My God, I’m so sorry,” she said. "I can’t believe she did that! How can anyone be that greedy?”
"I wasn’t worried about the money,” Ryan said. "I have more than I could possibly spend in a lifetime, and I can always make more. But I thought she loved me. I thought I’d found my true mate. Bear shifters mate for life,” he said. "We don’t give our hearts away easily. My bear never liked her much, but I thought I knew better. I was an idiot.” His shoulders slumped. "Maybe this is too much to ask any normal human woman to deal with. Maybe she’s right, and I’m a freak.”
"You're not a freak! And I don’t know about other women, but it certainly doesn’t bother me. I think you’re amazing.”
She reached up, caught Ryan by the collar of his shirt and pulled him down into a thorough, passionate kiss, trying to show him all the things she was feeling, her gratitude and admiration and the passion she felt every time she looked at his gorgeous body. Her love.
Ryan looked a little dazed when she finally released him.
"I know I’m no great prize, but—” Isabella started.
"You? But look at you! What greater prize could any man ask for?” Ryan said, gesturing at her.
Isabella self-consciously followed the path of his hands with her eyes, looking at her too-soft stomach and her wide hips.
"Come on, your first wife looked like a supermodel,” she said.
"Beth? I suppose so,” Ryan said, as if said thought was deeply startling to him. He furrowed his brow. "I guess I never thought of Bethany as very beautiful,” he said. "I mean, I’m sure there’s a lot of men who'd think Beth looks great, but she’s all sharp edges! I like a woman with some curves on her." He smiled. "At least when I look at you, I don’t have to worry you’ll snap like a twig if I so much as touch you. I’m a pretty big guy myself, after all. And, well, there's other advantages to a full figure…"
He flushed to the tip of his nose. "I’ve been trying not to be rude and stare, but…” he gestured shyly at her breasts, which were, as usual, straining against her t-shirt.
It was a challenge to find t-shirts that both fit her small, plump frame and her generous breasts. Everything either hung on her like an enormous tent or, well…
Isabella looked down at her breasts again. Her nipples had tightened and were showing faintly through the stretched, tight fabric. For the first time, seeing her body through Ryan’s admiring eyes, she felt like maybe there was something to like about what nature had given her.
Isabella took Ryan’s hand and, blushing, placed it on the side of her breast. "You can look all you want,” she said.
Ryan was devouring her with his eyes. He gently cupped her breast in his big hand, his thumb brushing ever so lightly over her nipple. Isabella gasped, feeling a surge of desire so strong it almost knocked her off her feet. Her panties were already soaked from how badly she wanted him.
"How about we take this to the bedroom?” Isabella said, blushing again. She’d never been so forward with anyone before. But with Ryan she didn’t feel like she had to be ashamed of anything, or like she ought to hide how much she wanted him.
"Tell me where to go,” Ryan said, and then he bent down and picked her up in his arms like a husband carrying his bride over the threshold. Isabella squeaked with surprise.
"What are you doing? You’ll throw your back out!”
But Ryan wasn’t showing the slightest sign of strain. He was holding her in his arms as easily as if she weighed nothing at all.
She directed him through the hallway towards the back of the house and into her bedroom. It was the same room she had slept in as a kid on her visits to Sally's farm. It even still had the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling that she’d put up as a kid, and the pink bedspread she’d chosen when she was twelve. Isabella blushed at the thought of him seeing all of those childish things. But Ryan didn’t have eyes for anything but her. There was a fire smoldering in his dark eyes.
He set her gently down on the bed and stood over her for a moment. It gave her a great view of the front of his pants which were straining at the seams. Oh, yeah, she’d guessed it about right, that first day she’d seen him in the pond. His cock was perfectly proportional with his big body. Her mouth watered at the sight of it.
Isabella's bed was the same narrow twin she'd been sleeping in since she was a kid. With Ryan's size, the two of them had to press very close to fit. Not that that was a problem at all.
They undressed each other eagerly, Ryan's strong arm wrapping around her to keep her from tumbling out of the bed. He sprawled out on his back and pulled her on top of him, pressing them together skin to skin. Isabella closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his naked body against hers.
"Condoms are in the bedside drawer," she told him. She only remembered what else was in the bedside drawer when Ryan had already twisted around to pull it open. "Wait!" she said quickly, but Ryan was already looking at the contents of the drawer, giving a low chuckle.
"That's the vibrator I've heard about, huh?" he said.
Isabella blushed, covering her face with her hands.
"Would you mind if I…" Ryan started. He switched it on, holding it lightly against the inside of her thigh.
"Oh!" Isabella said, startled. She let her legs fall open, and Ryan slowly ran the vibe up between them. She'd never done this with anyone else before, and she was rapidly discovering that something that felt pretty damn nice when she was on her own turned into a blazing firestorm of sensation with Ryan doing it to her. He seemed to know exactly where she needed to be touched. Isabella moaned when he pressed the vibe gently against her clit, squirming into the delicious sensation.
Ryan bent down to kiss her breast, licking gently at her nipple.
"Mm. You can do that harder," Isabella said. So he did, sucking more firmly until she gasped, her hands tightening on his shoulders.
"Come on, I want you," she said.
Ryan wrapped an arm around her and flipped them over effortlessly, putting her on top again. "Like this?" he asked.
Isabella sat up to straddle him, her aching pussy right up against his big cock. She rolled the condom on him herself, and couldn't resist giving him a few light, teasing strokes. Ryan threw his head back, groaning.
"You keep that up, this is gonna be over way too soon," he said.
Isabella wasn't really worried about that. Ryan had already proven that he had more than enough stamina for her.
Isabella moaned when she slid down on him. With her on top, she could get him deep inside her, filling her perfectly. She rocked her hips, feeling him inside. Ryan started moving in tandem with her. He reached for the forgotten vibrator and pressed it against her clit again. Isabella jerked, startled. God, that felt amazing. The pleasure was crashing over her in waves. She clenched her pussy around him, braced on his chest, and moved faster and faster till she came with a strangled cry.
Ryan groaned, took her by the hips, and gave a few last hard thrusts. He face went slack with pleasure when he came.
"Mm, that feels nice," she said quietly. She snuggled down against his broad chest. "God, I can't even believe today really happened. It's all just… too crazy to be true. And… you're really a bear shifter?"
"I'm really a bear shifter," Ryan said with a low laugh. "I can't believe this doesn't bother you."
"I think it's amazing," Isabella said. "Could I… can I see your bear again?"
"If you want," Ryan said, sounding surprised. "Not in here, though. As charming as this house is, I don't think it really has the space for a grizzly. Let's go out into the garden, okay?"
They tossed some clothes on, and then Ryan followed her outside.
"Stand back a little," he said. Isabella watched, breathlessly, as he shifted again. He made it look so natural and easy—one minute, there was the man she loved, and the next, there was an enormous grizzly bear.
"Hi," Isabella said tentatively, reaching out one hand to the bear. It nuzzled its big head into her palm, making a low, rumbling sound of approval. "This is amazing," she said.
The bear was hunkering down, obviously trying to make itself seem small and unthreatening.
"It's fine, you don't have to do that," Isabella said. "I'm not scared of you." She grinned. "You're not that much bigger than the horses I used to ride as a kid."
She'd meant that mostly as a tease—Ryan's enormous bear form was a lot bigger than any horse she'd ever been on, especially when he reared up on his hind legs—but the bear gave her a thoughtful look and then bent down so his back was low to the ground. He gave her a prompting look.
"What?" Isabella asked, and then suddenly got it. "Oh! Do you mean, do I want to take a ride on your back?"
The bear nodded.
"Oh! Oh wow, yes!"
She clambered up onto the bear's broad back a little awkwardly. Ryan looked back to make sure she was safely seated. She gave him a nod, and he straightened up. "Whoa," Isabella said. The ground was suddenly a whole lot further away. "Wow, this is amazing."
