Max had tried to explain it to her in several different ways. This dimension was set sideways to hers, like the edge of a piece of paper to the front of the page, and it was possible to move from one to the other if you knew how to turn the paper. Whatever. All she knew was that where she was, as beautiful as it was, just wasn't home.
Standing up, trying to keep the scowl from her face, Nikki pulled at the shirt she was wearing. Green was not her color. Not with her deep Nubian skin tone. Black women did not look good in leaves. That's what she had decided. The thing of it was - there were no clothes here. No shirts, no pants, no underwear. The best they had was coverings of sewn together leaves used for ceremonial get-togethers. Still, it was better than how she had arrived here, naked in Max's arms.
So she had gotten used to wearing a sleeveless dress made of soft fuzzy leaves sewn together. It might be all the rage here in Gallandrian but it was very tight across Nikki's breasts. She kept worrying that her nipples would be leaf peeping any second.
Wardrobe malfunctions might not mean much in a world where everyone walked around naked as the day they were born. Nikki wasn't in the habit of showing off what the good Lord had given her though.
She pulled her long hair back with both hands and tugged at it firmly. It was a nervous habit that she had grown out of when she was like, twelve, but the last few days here had brought it out in her again.
Up the slope below her, a huge, shaggy bear lumbered. Its eyes were dark and its tongue lolled out in heavy breaths. It came closer, up the slope in her direction, its white fur shining sleekly in the sun. Nikki felt herself shiver. She would never get used to living in a world inhabited by bears.
Well. Sort of inhabited by bears.
The animal was almost as tall as Nikki standing on all four of its paws. The heavy head lifted up to look directly at her, their eyes locking. Another shiver ran through her this time, different than the last.
All the way up the hill the bear came, the last golden rays of the off-colored sun reflecting in its thick white fur. It snuffed the air, close to her belly, and she felt its hot breath sliding across the skin where the odd clothing left her midsection bare. It was more than slightly erotic.
Which was another problem altogether.
“All right Max. That's enough.”
He looked up at her, his wet nose brushing against her belly in such a way that she was sure was no accident. Her skin tingled with his touch. With a grin that was all too human, he took two steps back from her and then sat on his haunches.
And changed.
The white hairs all over his body quivered and retreated, slithering back into the bear. His flesh molded like putty in the hands of a sculptor changing his mind about what he had wanted to create. One form was being made over into another. The sound of bones breaking and grinding and shifting accompanied other sounds that were less identifiable while Nikki watched the bear morph and become something else. A human.
In mere seconds Max sat before her in the same place where the bear had just been breathing in her scent. He was a big muscular man with skin nearly as white as the hair of his bear form. The Ursallin had the ability to shift between a bear and a human form. Max was beautiful as both. His chest was broad and his abs chiseled and his boyish face had close-set, expressive eyes. His blonde hair was messed up and damn if he didn't look cuter than any man had a right to. Especially one who could morph into a bear and back again.
“I was just saying hello,” Max said, a lopsided grin on his face as he bent one knee up and hooked his arm around it. Nikki had a good look at his groin before he hid it behind his muscular thigh. He had caught her looking. “I was worried about you. You've been out here all afternoon.”
Nikki couldn't help her eyes from sliding back down and comparing him to every man she had ever seen naked before. Not for the first time, either. For lack of a better word, he was huge. The memory of him making love to her in the forest down there had fueled her nights with the most amazing dreams ever since. This morning she'd woken up so hot and needy that she'd almost gone to find Max in his hut to let him do to her what he'd done before. She'd controlled that urge, just barely, thanks to a lot of heavy petting from her own two hands.
Damn.
It wasn't that she didn't want to have his sex again. She'd love to have him do it to her all over again. But when they'd had their moment in the sun she hadn't known about what he was. She hadn't known he was a bear. Now that she did, the thought of having him inside of her was just...weird.
“Did I do something wrong?” Max asked her. His smile had become uncertain and she could see how upset he was.
“You mean,” she asked, “did you do something wrong besides taking me from my home and my world and...and my clothes? To trap me here in Neverland?”
“Gallandrian,” he corrected her.
“Don't push me, Mister Riddle Man,” she scolded him, even though she couldn't keep her mouth from turning up in a grin as she did. “You got no right to be mad at me when I'm the one being held prisoner here.”
After a moment in which he didn't say anything at all, Max stood up. Her eyes were drawn to his thick manhood again before she could make them lift up to his face once more. He brushed his hands together to wipe off the dirt, and stood in front of her like there was nothing at all to be ashamed about. He was naked and he was comfortable in his own skin.
“As I recall it,” he said, scratching behind his ear, “I brought you here to save you from being abused and dissected by several nasty Shifts.”
She took an involuntary step back when he said that name. Shifts. Monsters from her worst nightmares made real. Shapeshifters who apparently enjoyed pretending to be real people until they wanted to devour you and violate you and...worse. Then they turned into a living mass of black goo capable of taking on any shape.
Max could change his shape, too, but it wasn't the same thing. He could turn into a bear. Only a bear though. These Shifts could be anything. They could be anyone. And they didn't have a single ounce of humanity.
Swallowing, she crossed her arms under her breasts, feeling the soft rustle of the leaves against her skin. “Yes. You saved my life. I'm happy. I'm eternally in your debt, Mister Riddle Man, but that does not explain why you've kept me here so long.”
“I didn't want to keep you here. The Council did. I agreed with them.”
“You're really starting to make me angry, Max.” She was tapping her bare foot against the ground, she realized, and with an effort she made her leg be still. “You want me to go all angry Black Woman on you?”
“I'm sure I don't,” he said in that calm way that infuriated her so much. “The only safe place for you was here. Now you know that. No Shift can cross over into Gallandrian unless one of my kind helps them. They can't get to you here.”
She clenched her teeth. “Don't know why a bunch of blobs want me so bad in the first place.”
Shaking his head, he moved into her, taking hold of her arms just above the elbows. She let him do it. The caress of his fingers was like electricity passing through soft velvet. Every time they touched, or if she touched any of the Ursallin, the same thing happened. “I've told you, you're special. I felt it the minute I saw you. We're feeling it now. The Shifts know it, too. They want to possess what you have. To use it for themselves.”
“There's more to it than that,” she said. It was a statement, not a question.
“Yes, but it's not for me to tell you.”
Her hands had found their way to his hips and stroking him there with her fingertips made him push closer into her. Touching him was dangerous, she knew. It led to things that scared her, and excited her, but whenever he was around her, she just couldn't help herself.
“The thing is,” she said to him, her fingers dipping lower, “you haven't told me what's so special about me. I've been here three days and every time I ask you about it you change the subject. Or turn into a bear and romp away.”
He chuckled. “Bears d
on't romp.”
“Oh,” she teased, her hands brushing something very private that made him twitch, “you romp. There was romping. Maybe there's some way I can...convince you to tell me the answer.”
“Nikki. I told you. I can't say anything until the Council—”
Her hand circled his manhood, and stroked down to his tip. Very. Slowly.
“Tell me,” she whispered into his ear.
“That feels really good,” he whispered back. “But I can't tell you.”
This time she added a twist. He pulsed, and she could feel him getting thicker, starting to stand up for her. She knew it was only a matter of time before he was telling her everything she wanted to know and begging her to do more. Hey, a girl's got to have her ways, she thought to herself with a smile.
Reaching down between his legs, she turned her fingernails loose.
Behind her, someone cleared his throat.
Startled, Nikki jumped, pressing her fingers into a very sensitive spot for Max, who jumped and pulled away from her, leaving only a ghostly tingling all over the palm of her hand from where she had touched him.
“If you two are done groping each other,” Arcan growled, “the Council is ready to see us.”
Arcan was the other werebear that she had come to know here in their wild kingdom. She had met a few others as well, but Arcan and Maximillian were the only two she had any real contact with. The others mostly seemed to be interested in keeping as much distance between themselves and the human as possible. Although Arcan had the same height as Max, he was wiry and lean. He didn't have the huge proportions that Max did. Not in any part of his body.
Any part.
It was easy enough to see the difference. Arcan didn't wear clothes either.
His skin was darker than Nikki's and it had been nice to know that in this alternate universe where trees grew taller than skyscrapers and the sky was bluer than any she had ever seen in the city where she lived, there were Black people too. Black werebears, she should say, because Arcan was exactly what Max was. A shapeshifter. An Ursallin. As far as she knew, everyone in this world was one of those. Not that there seemed to be a lot of people here. She'd counted thirty different faces and not one more than that.
“We aren't groping each other,” Max said to Arcan. As always, there was an uneasy feeling between those two. An angry truce that seemed to be simmering just below the surface ready to explode at any moment.
Arcan looked at Nikki, then very intentionally down at her hands, then at Max's crotch, his erection half formed and begging for more.
“Right,” he said to Max with a sneer. “You weren't groping each other. Whatever. The sun is setting. The Council awaits. Unless you plan on making them wait for us again?”
Max balled his fists and Nikki knew he was about to do something violent. Every muscle in his body tensed. Then, as quick as thought, he relaxed and inclined his head to Arcan. “No. I remember how poorly the Council took it the last time I made them wait. Besides, Nikki needs to know if she can go back home or not.”
“See?” Nikki grumped. “Prisoner.”
Arcan sneered. “Let's hope they tell her she can go back to her crowded, hard world. I've had more than enough of her.”
When he turned to walk away, Nikki lunged for him. It was Max who caught her and held her back. “Not now,” he said to her. “Wait. Let's find out what the Council has to say.”
Nikki leaned her head against his shoulder and let her own anger flow out of her. All of this was making her go crazy. Dimensions within worlds. Men who changed into bears. Gooey monstrosities of evil ick that wanted to use her or kill her or worse.
What could possibly come next?
***
Nighttime in the world of Gallandrian meant a stillness that Nikki had never experienced in Manhattan. No car horns. No traffic. No people wandering around under neon lights looking for a friend or a fix or just wandering for no reason. Just peace and tranquility everywhere she looked.
In the town where the werebears lived—they called it a Collective—there was a clearing surrounded by a group of huts. Small one or two room homes made out of thatched timber. A meeting hall was situated in the center of the cleared space, two trees standing straight and proud to either side of it. The trees themselves were as wide around as Nikki's apartment building and three times as tall. The whole thing reminded Nikki of something out of a frontier village scene. Or Lord of the Flies.
Arcan led them inside the meeting hall. They didn't pass anyone on the way in. If anyone had been anxious to know what the Council would tell the visiting human, no one wanted to show it.
Once inside they went down a short hallway built from stout tree branches that led them to a round room where several Ursallin sat at a long, rectangular table. The three of them stood there, in front of these Council members, Max on her right and Arcan on her left.
Every one of the Council members, man and woman alike, was naked.
The leader of the Council cleared his throat and brought the meeting open with a ritual prayer and greeting. Then he turned to Nikki. It looked like she was going to get her answers without having to use her feminine wiles after all. Even if that would have been more fun.
The Council sat with scowls and hard stares and piercing eyes. There were five of them, and Nikki had met them before this. When she had come crashing through a rip between the worlds Max had been forced to explain her presence to these same people. That had been uncomfortable enough. This was worse.
For reasons she didn't yet fully understand, these five people held her fate in their hands.
They were old, and gray, but by no means weak. Their naked bodies were healthy and intimidating, strong with muscle and sinew and hungry looks. All of them were tough and strong and all of them had a fire in their eyes that made it hard for Nikki to look directly at them for any length of time.
“We have reached a decision,” the man seated in the center of the table began without any small talk. The Council weren't ones to waste time. “The human Nikki Bryant is to return to her Earth.”
Nikki could have jumped for joy, if she wasn't worried about ripping the leaves in her makeshift clothes apart. She'd done everything but demand to be released back to her home over the last three days and she'd been told each time that they couldn't let her go back until they had debated the issue among themselves. It wasn't like she could just call for a taxi cab to take her back. She was at the mercy of the werebears—the Ursallin here—because one of them had to rip a hole through to her world before she could get there.
“Great,” she said after a moment to contain her excitement. “When do I leave?”
Her question was met with silence.
Nikki looked from one of them to the other. “What?”
“You don't go alone,” the same man said to her. His name was Oroth, and as near as Nikki could tell he was the leader of this Collective. His word was law, and this time his word was not what Nikki had expected. “The two who stand with you are going to accompany you.”
Max held her hand tightly. He didn't say a word. He didn't have to. She could sense how happy he was to be given that chance.
Arcan's reaction was less subtle.
“What?” he demanded. “Regulator Oroth, I beg you. My place is here in Gallandrian. I don't belong in the Hard World where she comes from.”
The way he said “she” turned it into a dirty word.
Oroth waited for Arcan to finish, and then waited even longer before finally saying to him, “Your place is where we say it is, Arcan. When you sit on this Council, you can decide who belongs where. For the moment, for now, I sit as head of this Council. Your position here is assured. That has already been decided but your time will not come until I die. I do not plan on dying any time soon. For today, I make the decisions for our people and my decision is for you to follow Nikki Bryant into her world and protect her.”
“Protect her?” His face paled. “You mean to say I'm supposed to s
tay in her world?”
“For as long as it takes,” Oroth confirmed with a long nod.
The woman seated to his left, her breasts full and round and her face pretty in spite of her graying hair, raised a hand toward Arcan. “You are one of our best. As is Maximillian. You have both done assignments in Nikki Bryant's Earth before. You are our best choice for what is coming.”
“With due respect, Regulator Shellen,” Max said to her, “we don't know what is coming. There are many questions you haven't answered for us. For Nikki, I mean.”
Regulator Shellen smiled back at Max. “I know what you are referring to. She wishes to know why she is so important to the Shifts. Why they are actively seeking her.”
“Yes,” Max said.
“It has to do with the Ursa Initiative, doesn't it?” Nikki didn't like being kept in the dark. Knowing the little bit she did made it worse, because she knew there was more coming, and knew it involved her. At the law firm where she had worked, before all this started, she had accidentally seen some files marked for the Ursa Initiative. They had referred to a large animal control program and just looking at them had gotten her suspended. When she had gone back to look at them again with Max, they had very nearly gotten her killed. It hadn't taken very much for her to figure out that the large animals the Ursa Initiative were supposed to control were the werebears.
Shellen and Oroth and the other Regulators smiled at her. It was Oroth who spoke. “Yes. The Ursa Initiative is an attempt by the Shifts to eradicate our kind. They've made it all legal and neat and honest in appearance. A genocide of every shapeshifter from this world.”
“Can they do that?” Nikki asked. Her feet were getting tired from standing for so long. The floor was hard packed dirt and she had never missed her Ugg boots so much in her life. “I mean, that's pretty bold, isn't it? To try and kill off an entire race?”
“How many of us have you seen here in the village?” Shellen asked.
Nikki pursed her lips because she knew the answer already. “Not that many.”
Simply Bears: A Ten Book Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection Page 33
