Inside of her, something broke. The crack was wide and sharp and through it poured everything that she was. Everything she used to be, everything she had become since she had met Maximillian the Ursallin. Everything she now realized she would become, one day.
Or rather, would have become.
She flung her hands wide, as wide apart as she could, her fingers spread, her muscles taut. Through her coursed electric lines of power that pulsed and hummed along with the beating of her heart. The rippling flesh of the Shift that held her reared back from her, loosening its grip, sensing something had changed.
Nikki was coming awake.
Max's eyes were closed, and she didn't think he was breathing, and if she didn't act soon, she knew he would die.
So she acted.
With a scream that rivaled even the sound of Donovan's own voice she pushed outward with everything she was, and the force of it nearly blew her mind. It was hot and intense, and fierce, like wild sex at the peak of motion where one swift thrust will push you into heights that take everything out of you all at once to gush in a release that leaves you more than you were before.
That was what happened next.
Bright light washed across her vision, a physical thing that she could feel and hear and taste and touch, a brightness that was both weapon and cure and salve and sharp bladed knife thrusting out with orgasmic power. It sliced away from her in a wash that had enough force to cut through stone and bone alike.
It cut through Donovan with the power of thought.
Light bursting everywhere, crashing in and through the darkness, Nikki poured herself into the force of what she could only describe as magic. She could do magic now.
She tittered with insane laughter, aware of what was happening to her and knowing she couldn't stop. Not if she wanted to kill the Primus Secor.
For Max's sake, that was what she had to do.
She had to spend every little bit of what she was, spend it against Donovan, spend it in one explosive force of light to beat the darkness back.
It began to dawn on her that she was being drained away from herself. She was losing what she was. It was dribbling through that crack, out of her, into the Primus Secor.
He roared, a deafening and terrible and filthy sound. He pulled away from her quickly, trembling and quaking and squirming. There was nowhere for him to run. She was everywhere. He had pulled in everything from this world to make him what he was, and he had become damned near all powerful. But, the same thing that had given him so much power was now going to be his downfall. There was nowhere for him to run, because he had made himself out of everything.
Everything was where she was.
With a golden flare of pain Nikki shot sparks from her skin before erupting into flame that swept away from her in an ever growing circumference. Everything that flame touched burned away. The darkness was stripped from everywhere, and color flooded the world of Jakal. Color and light.
And hope.
***
Max awoke slowly, and the first thing he knew was pain. Every inch of him hurt. Everything from his scalp to his fingernails to the tip of his penis. He had to believe that if he looked into a mirror right then, he'd be one massive bruise. He'd suffered so many hurts in the last two days that his body was having a hard time keeping up. He was healing, but very, very slowly.
Where was he? The sunlight above hurt his eyes. There. One more part of his body left hurting from the slap Donovan had given him.
Donovan! He pushed himself to his feet, trying to defend himself from everything around him at once, not knowing where the danger was coming from. Where was the Primus Secor? Everywhere around him was bright with greens and browns and reds and a riot of other colors that were so beautiful they made him tear up. Living things. Leafy trees, budding grass. He didn’t understand.
He'd been on Jakal. This wasn't Jakal. That place was an eternal night. Here, warmth and light and life ruled.
Where was he?
Another memory rammed itself home in his mind. Nikki. She had been with him, fighting the Primus Secor. Had she made it here, with him? Had she brought them here, even? Her new powers were incredible to see but she wasn't exactly in control of them yet. Frantic now, he began limping down the gentle slope of the hill where he'd woken up. His right arm wouldn't work, and he cradled it with his left. Everywhere he looked, there was nothing but nature.
"Nikki!" he shouted, over and over, until his voice began to get hoarse. "Nikki!"
Thoughts of the others slipped in and out of his mind, too. Arcan. Forl. He knew the others were dead. He thought Forl might be as well. They had abandoned Forl when it seemed the Primus Secor had been inside of him. That would be his eternal guilt to carry. Unless the Primus Secor was still out there somewhere and came looking to kill Maximillian the Ursallin, too. He wouldn't live with the guilt very long then.
But what about Arcan? And where was Nikki? Maybe she had gotten him out with her powers. Maybe, he thought, she had found a way to send him through a portal as the Primus Secor crashed down on them. No. Oh, please no. What would that mean for her?
It would mean she was dead, is what it would mean.
Dropping down heavily on his ass, he hung his head and tried to hold himself together. He was alive. That meant absolutely nothing to him if Nikki couldn't be here with him.
You're always so serious, her voice said in his mind.
"I know," he answered her, even though she wasn't really there with him. "There's too much wrong not to be serious."
The wind blew and stirred across his skin. It was an oddly intimate gesture.
He knew that he should use his own skills and make a portal back to Gallandrian. The Council would have to be told what happened. They would want to know, and he was sure they would have a lot to say to him about what he had done. More death, including Nikki's, with nothing to show for it.
I can read your thoughts, you know.
"You always did understand me."
There was a hint of laughter on the breeze. No, Mister Riddle Man. I can read your thoughts right now. They're all over your face.
Max sat up straighter, looking all around him. "Nikki?"
Of course.
"How are you here?"
Silence met his question, and as he strained his ears listening for her again he became aware of something strange. All around where he sat, nature stared at him. It watched him. It regarded him. The world was alive, and not in the general way that nature was alive. The world here was really alive. As alive as any person he had ever known.
Only, he knew this person.
"Nikki."
Yes.
"I don't…how?"
The wind stirred and shifted back and forth. Nikki was trying to think the question through. I don't know how. I just am. There was…there was this big flash of energy from me and it cut through Donovan…
"Wait, you…and Donovan?"
Yes. I think I killed him.
Max's eyes widened. He looked around him again, this time really seeing what was here. Those trees. The way this hill met that ditch and that rock jutted out over there. If it wasn't so bright and cheerful it would look exactly like Jakal.
He gasped.
It was Jakal. They were still here, in Jakal.
The Primus Secor wasn't here. He was dead.
"Nikki where are you?" Max asked in a panic, rising up to his feet, needing to know where she was right now.
I'm here, Max.
"Where? Where are you?"
I'm here.
"Where!"
I'M RIGHT HERE.
Her voice echoed from every part of the world around him. That was when he knew.
Nikki had given everything she had to stop Donovan. She had literally poured herself out to make sure they could put an end to the evil monster. It had worked at the cost of her life. Her life's energy had been stripped out of her and then…
There were stories about such things in the history of the U
rsallin. He understood what she had gone through. He could imagine every moment of it in his mind's eye. Her soul had been blasted outward, flaming through her skin and bones, and in the process it had become embedded in everything it touched. It was imbued into the very substance of this world now. In a very real way, she had become Jakal.
She was still alive, in the strictest sense, but as a living consciousness inside the planet where he stood. The ground was now her flesh and bones. She would never be human again. The air, her breath. He would never hold her in his arms or feel her skin on his or know what it was like to make love to her. That part of their life was gone.
"Oh, Nikki."
Don't cry for me, Max. This is what I was meant for, I think. This is why I was created. Born of an Ursallin and a Shift, so that I could put an end to the war between them. I was the bridge.
"But, I love you. It can't end this way."
The air stirred against his naked skin again, caressing him, reminding him of how her hands had made him tingle and react to their gentle touch.
His body reacted now. He wasn't the least embarrassed to stand on the firm, fertile ground of Jakal, erect and wanting. Nikki's life energy had turned this place into a paradise. Perhaps the Ursallin would come here now, and he would come with them, and in a strange way he and Nikki could be together forever.
After all, Ursallin mate for life.
"I'll be back," he whispered. "I have to go and explain all of this to the Council, but I'll be back. Soon. I promise."
He turned, because it seemed like he had to turn away even though Nikki was now everywhere around him, and he raised his good left arm and let it morph into its bear shape so he could claw at the air to form the portal to Gallandrian. It seemed easier than it ever had before, somehow, like someone was helping him do it.
When the shining circle appeared he swallowed back his tears and nodded, once. "I will be back."
On the wind, he could hear Nikki's voice again.
I'll be waiting, my love....
THE END
Did you enjoy this book? If so then remember to rate the whole collection and mention “Rosa Foxxe” in your review to support this author!
YES, I WILL RATE THIS AWESOME AUTHOR!
Keep going, there are lots more awesome Bear Shifter Romances in this package!
BOOK FIVE
TAKEN
BY THE BEARS
A BBW Bear Shifter Romance
JJ JONES
Copyright ©2015 by JJ Jones
All rights reserved.
About This Book
Curvy Juliette Saunders always knew she was special but she was never sure of the reason why.
One night she finds herself TAKEN from her bed by three young men who promise her a better life. She is scared however their intent is genuine.
The handsome and muscular men are all Bear Shifters and they do not want to harm her. However, they do want to MATE her.
Juliette is about to find out how special she really is and just how special the Bears can make her feel...
CHAPTER ONE
Cold stone walls closed in on me every night, suffocating me, and crushing my chest as if a large weight sat on it. But this was supposed to happen, or so I was told. I couldn’t quite prepare myself for the dreams that plagued me at night.
Freckles…it always started with freckles on pale white cheeks. The sunlight beamed down in a garden of flowers as two pretty females in white flowered dresses clapped in the background. They seemed to be everywhere at once, whispering in soft toned words I couldn’t quite understand.
I was searching for something, growing desperate because I had been looking for too long. My heart began to sink into despair as I called out something that my ears couldn’t quite register. It was my own voice but I didn’t recognize it. I felt the vibrations in my throat from the emitting sound.
All of a sudden I ran to the forest. The closer my legs took me to the tree line, the clearer my voice became until it pierced the restless air with utter perfection. I was a little girl again, running with small chubby legs through tangles of bushes. The female voices were behind me now, hollering with desperation, but I ignored them. Something in me told me that they didn’t matter. I needed to find it…had to find it… No matter how much trouble I’d be in later, it didn’t matter. It’d pale in comparison to what could happen if I didn’t find it.
I wracked my head now, trying to figure out what it was I needed to find. The trees swallowed me whole, blocking out the sunlight. Thorns reached out their sharpened claws towards me, scratching and burning me with their insatiable poison.
I disregarded the pain and focused on staying awake. My mind began to cloud as time began to press against me, threatening to collapse my world in hallucinations of grandeur.
Then my voice became known.
“Logannnnnnn,” I huffed out, still running deeper and deeper into the green. “I’m comin’.”
A boy a few years my elder appeared from behind a tree with desperation in his eyes. He looked at me with relief and beckoned me forward. His voice was rasp with worry. “They can’t see this,” he said. “They mustn’t see this or it could ruin everything.”
I nodded, somehow knowing that what he was saying was important. I failed them and led Mom straight here. Her flowered dress ripped on the thorns as she huffed after me in the forest with the other female at her heels.
“It’ll be alright Logan,” I assured him, looking up with beautiful lavender eyes at the thirteen year old boy before me. My heart beat irately within my small chest as my body fought the poison flowing through my blood.
Silence fell on the forest as I heard a thud a few yards back followed by a second. There was gasping and choking…then all was still. Something bad had just happened because tears were flowing down my cheeks and my heart felt torn in two. But I couldn’t quite understand why I was crying. Everything was safe now. It was necessary.
The boy’s eyes grew sad as he looked behind me. “You didn’t deserve this,” he apologized, leaning down and embracing my tiny frame. “But I know what it’s like and you’ll be alright. It had to happen Jewels,” he insisted, his voice growing thick with emotion. “We’ll take care of you now.”
Everything felt right. We turned to walk further into the forest, the trees passing almost faster than we walked. The hallucinogens blazed within my veins until who I was left me completely. The forest had accepted me, welcomed me as its chosen child, which was the only reason I was alive right now. Otherwise I would’ve ended up stone cold dead just like…I wiped away stray tears dribbling down my cheek. Just like my mother…
“Let go,” Logan said to me now. “It’s time to let it all go.”
I complied with his request and closed my eyes, letting everything fall. I drifted, falling into his strong arms.
When the blackness surrounded me, voices rang far off. I couldn’t come to. There was screaming and howling, almost as if the chasm of hell came up and snatched the soul of an innocent.
“She’s here,” I heard Logan speak.
I opened my eyes within the dream still and looked into a small blazing fire.
I sat up now and wiped the foggy smoke from my eyes. My heart leapt upon taking everything in.
Logan was there, hunched over the shaking form of his twin brother with a knife in his hand. Nightfall’s moon beamed into the small opening of the cave. I could sense the milky rays scattered across the floor some yards away. I didn’t know where I was, but I knew we were safe.
My body tingled all over as I realized something drastic was going to happen. My life was about to change tonight for good and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Somehow I managed to stand up, my head spinning out of control. My stubborn legs forcedly strode over to the other side of the fire clumsily. Then I collapsed next to Liam’s convulsing body.
Never had I ever seen pain riddle one’s face as viciously as his. His eyebrows were construed together. His tee
th bare to the night, and his fingernails digging into his own arms as he hugged himself on the ground. Blood trailed down his suntanned skin and onto the dirt floor as he lay naked on his side.
“Liam,” I begged, hoping that he might open his eyes to assure me he was alright. “Liam, are you okay?”
When there came no answer I shot a look at Logan, the younger of the twins. He looked as helpless as I felt, gripping the knife tightly in his one hand as if ready to strike at anything. He too was unclothed to the world but that didn’t seem odd to me. The boys had always been comfortable in their own skin as far back as I could remember. When I had tried to show mama my new playmates, she had quickly shooed them away for indecency.
Mama never understood things like that. She always said I shouldn’t wander too close to the woods because it would eat me alive. That’s why I was never unsupervised or allowed to get even near them. She said that they were poisonous and I would die if I trespassed. Now I saw that she was right. But it wasn’t me who died today.
Somehow I knew I was special. The Forest always opened its arms to me and let me in. I spent many long hours hidden in its dark embrace, shut out from the rest of the world.
When Liam began to cough up blood, that’s when everything in the dream scattered into chaos. His voice began to utter horrible guttural sounds, and his honey brown eyes darkened to an ebony color. The ring around his black iris glowed silver like the moon. I wanted to help him, to calm his screaming. But deep inside, I knew that this was a good pain.
“Is he sick?” I asked Logan who merely shrugged in response.
“You could call it that.”
To my utter dismay Logan’s body started to perspire. His entire physique tensed up as he cast me a helpless expression, dropping the blade to the ground. There it settled in a layer of dirt.
Everything was happening at an undistinguishable rate. I stood there helplessly as Logan’s face twisted into a snarl of pain, his head tilted back, and he dropped beside his brother on the floor.
Simply Bears: A Ten Book Paranormal Bear Shifter Romance Collection Page 45
