Maybe it was nothing.
She turned and broke out into a run, and that’s when she heard the growl. It was low, primal, and fierce. A second later, she was pushed to the cold hard ground, a heavy weight pressed on top of her.
“Where are you going, Tanya?” Carter’s voice, deep and gravelly, asked from above.
Two strong hands gripped her by her shoulders and flipped her on to her back. Carter was on top of her, bearing down, his flat, rock-hard bare chest pressing against the bulbous flesh of her breasts. Something hard pressed into her thigh. Simultaneous spikes of fear and arousal coursed through her.
“Get off me!” she screamed, trying in vain to push him off by the arms, but he was solid. He rose off her but kept hold of her arms.
“Why are you running away?” his breath was hot, his voice fierce.
“Leave me alone!” She began thrashing and kicking, but he was immovable. “What the hell do you want?”
“Who are you?” he growled.
“Fuck off!”
“WHO ARE YOU?” he roared, the intensity of his voice sending vibrations through her body. She thought the trees must be shaking.
“Tanya!” she cried.
“Stop lying! Who are you?!”
“T— Tan—” Tears were spilling over now.
“Don’t lie to me! Tell me who you are, and I’ll let you go!”
“J—Jules...” she whimpered, cheeks stained with tears.
Carter eased his grip slightly but didn’t let go. A low growl vibrated from deep in his throat. His face softened. The blue in his eyes came out, so vibrant they almost looked like they were glowing. He leaned down, hovering his face closely above hers. He studied her, sniffing slowly, then pressed his lips against her wet cheek, kissing away the tears.
Jules didn’t know what to do. His erection twitched against her thigh. Her vision was nearly red, her forehead thumping, heart racing. She felt nearly crazed from adrenaline. A white heat was quickly enveloping her, her core screaming out, her clit thumping. Her body wanted him. Wanted him bad. Her primal urge didn’t care who he was. It didn’t care about the situation. It didn’t care about the cops, about the manhunt. It just wanted him. She desperately yearned for that cock to penetrate her roughly. Right. Now.
She bucked her hips, communicating her want.
Carter pulled back, pleasantly surprised. Their eyes locked and she lost herself in the otherworldly glow of his sky-blue irises. She wrenched her arms from his loosened grip and snaked them around his rock-solid torso, grinding him down into her hips.
Carter leaned down and kissed her, and fireworks burst from deep in her core.
6
Max padded through the forest, moonlight glimmering against his dark brown fur, his backpack swinging off his neck. Carter was always so reckless, stashing his pack so he could run unencumbered, but Max didn’t like to leave his gun unattended, no matter how desolate the woods were.
His senses were acutely aware. He’d been following Carter’s scent trail, and he could tell he’d almost caught up with him.
Max knew he and his partner would be in trouble for not checking back in at the office. Burke was probably out of his mind, seething in anger at the thought of his rangers disobeying his orders and worried at the possibility that something terrible had happened to them.
A couple of hours earlier, Max had resolved to find Carter and drag him back to the office. He knew Carter desperately wanted to find the fugitive, and hell, Max did too. But they were being reckless and risking their jobs by staying out all night. Besides, Max doubted that they would even be successful. Jules could be anywhere. Without knowing her scent, tracking her down was much harder.
Carter’s scent grew stronger in Max’s nostrils. He inhaled deeply, letting out a loud grunt.
Up ahead, his sharp eyes caught sight of an old, worn-down cabin. He broke into a run, grunting with every loping step. Then, off to the left of the cabin several hundred yards, deep in the trees, he heard a noise. It was a female in heat, moaning.
Max slowed and followed the sound. Carter’s scent grew even more powerful. He was here. Along with it came another scent, the unmistakable honey-sweet aroma of a human woman’s arousal.
Max spotted two bodies on the forest floor, writhing. The female moans continued. Carter let out a low, carnal, intoxicated growl of arousal.
Max’s heart dropped. He observed the sight before him. Still mostly clothed, Carter was grinding his hips and kissing a voluptuous young human woman, with radiant black hair that splayed on the ground like a halo around her head. It was Jules.
Blind anger rose inside of him. He bared his teeth and let out a piercing roar before lurching forward and barreling into Carter, knocking him straight off Jules’s body.
Jules screamed and scrambled to her feet, backing up slowly as she stared at the sight in disbelief.
Carter shifted, his smooth human muscles contorting, the white of his skin replaced with a thick blanket of golden fur, his face growing long into a snout. His shorts ripped to shreds and fell to the ground as his body expanded. He let out an ear-piercing roar. Max tackled him, and the two bears rolled around on the forest floor. Max dominated him first, socking two hard blows against his face, before Carter bucked him off and took the upper hand, pinning Max down and delivering several blows of his own.
The two best friends had wrestled like this many times before, since the time they were cubs, but never with such violent intentions. Max’s blood felt red hot as it coursed through his animal veins. He was fuming. Anger, frustration, and even a sense of betrayal served as the fuel for his violent swipes.
The two bears continued their fight, both on roughly equal footing, with no clear winner.
Jules’s pleading voice gradually broke through Max’s concentration.
“Stop! Please, stop!”
Max eased up and backed away, Carter offering him a parting “fuck you” roar.
“What is going on?” Jules whimpered, her face pale with shock and terror. Max was surprised she was even able to speak. Most humans would go catatonic at such a surreal sight.
Max let go of his animal and shifted back into his human form, Carter following suit a few seconds later.
Jules locked eyes with Max, her brows furrowed. Instantly, he felt like someone had plunged a hand through his chest and squeezed his heart until it burst. Her eyes were a radiant, magnetic deep green, the color of evergreen needles in winter. Her skin was milky white, her curves thick and voluptuous. His cock immediately hardened to a heavy lead weight. She glanced down, staring at his package.
Shit. He suddenly realized he was naked. He sheepishly covered himself with his arm, trying to block the view.
Jules tore her eyes away and looked at Carter, her expression bewildered. He sat on the forest floor. The shorts he’d been wearing lay in tatters around him. His bare cock was still bulging, thick with arousal.
“You’re... shapeshifters?” Jules asked, her voice breaking with incredulity.
Max and Carter looked at each other, then at Jules, and nodded in unison.
“I... I can’t believe this,” Jules said. “I thought shifters were a myth.”
Carter took a deep, beastly inhale. “No, Jules, we’re real.”
“You’re not a lost hiker, are you?”
Max stared at Carter, his eyes narrowed to slits.
Carter shifted his weight and cleared his throat. “Uh, not exactly.”
Jules gasped and her eyes widened, like she’d suddenly had an epiphany. “That grizzly bear outside the cabin...”
“That was me,” Carter sighed, guilt weighing heavy on his features.
“Why?”
He shrugged. “I thought you were beautiful. I wanted to get to know you. The whole bear shifter thing... well, I didn’t want to scare you away.”
“But you did scare me.”
He put a hand on the back of his neck. “I’m sorry. I... I wanted to look heroic, or something.”
Max snorted disdainfully, shaking his head.
“What?” Carter spat, shooting Max a glare. “As if you wouldn’t do the same. I mean, look at her, Max. Look at her!”
Max’s eyes roved over her from top to bottom and back up again, lingering on her large breasts and round hips. His cock visibly twitched.
“And who are you?” Jules asked him. “Max?”
“That’s me.”
Their eyes locked, as if magnetized. A tinge of jealousy stirred in the pit of Carter’s stomach. He cleared his throat. “Max. Mind if I talk to you for a minute?”
Jules watched them.
“In private.”
The men stood. Carter took Max by the arm and pulled him off to the side. He looked over his shoulder at Jules. “Please don’t run. This’ll only take a second.”
Jules nodded. She crossed her arms and swayed, dumbfounded.
They kept walking until they were at a safe distance, Jules standing still in the same spot.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Max whispered fiercely.
“Listen, Max, I’m sorry.”
“A lost hiker? That’s what you told her?”
“It was the first thing that popped in my head!”
“She doesn’t know that we’re—”
Carter sighed. “No, Max, she doesn’t. How could I tell her that?”
“Carter, did you forget what we’re here to do?” Max’s eyes were slits. “We’re here to arrest her, not to... to mate with her, for God’s sake!”
“I didn’t anticipate that, Max. It just happened.”
“Oh, you didn’t anticipate that? Where’d you get the shorts and the shoes?”
Carter sighed, averting his eyes.
“Tell me, Carter. Tell me you didn’t come out here fully intending to deceive her just so you could get the chance to mate with her!”
Max stepped back, shaking his head in disbelief. “You know, I always knew you were immature, but I didn’t think you were this bad.”
“Hey, shut the hell up!” Carter growled. In the distance, Jules turned her head in their direction. He lowered his voice and leaned in close. “I swear to God, Max. I just wanted to meet her. Get to know her under more or less normal circumstances. I wanted her to see me as an ordinary guy, not as a cop trying to put her behind bars.”
Max gritted his teeth. “And what did you think would possibly come of it?”
“I don’t know,” Carter admitted. “Think of it like going undercover. I want to learn who she is. Why she did what she did. It’s only been a few hours, but I can already say with certainty that she’s a good person, and if I had to guess, it wasn’t her choice to get into this whole drug mess. Someone’s been forcing her.”
Max’s face softened slightly. “Well, Carter... that’ll be for the courts to decide. It’s not our call.”
“But if she tells us what really happened, we can use that information to help her.”
“Carter, we’re just rangers. We were given specific orders. We can’t just decide to conduct our own undercover investigation.”
“Who says we can’t?”
“It’s unnecessary, Carter,” Max sighed. “Regardless of her specific circumstances, she’s still gonna have to be brought in on a drug charge and resisting arrest. Plus, by now you and I are going to be in big trouble. I know Burke’s madder than hell at us right now for not checking back in with him.”
Carter grinned. “Nah, he’ll get over it. We’re out here catching a fugitive. We’re out here doing our jobs.”
Max rolled his eyes, but Carter could see that he was wearing him down. “So what do you propose we do, then?” Max grudgingly asked.
“We’ll keep the whole ranger thing under wraps. Just spend time with her. Encourage her to open up. Then—”
“Then yell ‘surprise!’ as we slap her in cuffs? Carter, she’s gonna hate us. She’s gonna feel betrayed. By you, especially.”
Carter sighed. “I know, I know. Look, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I’m certain we can figure something out. Just trust me.”
Max cocked his eyebrow, shook his head and let out a laugh. “Carter... you’re one crazy bastard, you know that?”
Carter grinned. “I know.” He began heading back to Jules, but Max reached and grabbed his arm.
“I’ve got my backpack here,” Max whispered. He tilted his head to where it lay on the ground. Carter nodded in understanding and Max knelt down and opened it, carefully pulling out a few articles of clothing. He glanced warily over at Jules, who stood with her back to them, and tossed a pair of shorts into Carter’s arms. Fumbling for the other pair, Max’s fingers fell on the hard plastic of the walkie-talkie. Stealthily, he pushed the button to the OFF position. Then he found another pair and the two shifters dressed themselves.
He slung the backpack over his shoulder, and Carter smirked as they walked back towards Jules. “Don’t fall in love with her, now. I got here first.”
7
Jules was beginning to shiver in the cool air of the night.
Her head was swimming, and she couldn’t believe what had happened. The day had gone from insane to bat-shit fucking insane. Bear shifters? Really? Part of her wondered if it was all a strange dream. Or maybe she’d brushed up against some incredibly strong hallucinogenic plant. Perhaps she’d crashed her car during the police chase and now she was in a coma. Or dead. That seemed likelier than the alternative, that she had just run into two freaking shapeshifters out in the middle of Yellowstone, one of whom she’d made out with on the ground like some kind of crazed nymphomaniac.
She’d always heard stories of shifters. Her own father used to tell her bedtime stories about them. He’d weave elaborate tales of magic, adventure, and intrigue. Not just bear shifters, but wolves, cougars, tigers, and more. Every now and then, some slack-jawed yokel would be interviewed on the wackier channels and recall his experience of coming face to face with a ferocious grizzly shifter. They’d play fuzzy, low-quality video footage of apparent transformations taking place far off in the distance. Then an expert would weigh in, scrutinizing the video and arguing how it was all an elaborate fraud.
Much like UFO enthusiasts, Jules knew there was a large group of people who were absolutely convinced of the existence of shifters. They claimed there were vast government conspiracies to suppress evidence. But as far as she knew, none of it had ever been confirmed by a sane person, let alone by science. In her mind, she filed shifters along with ghosts, Bigfoot, and the Loch Ness monster. Intriguing to think about, but just a figment of imagination.
Apparently she was wrong.
Out of the shadows, the two bear shifters reemerged. Absurdly, Jules felt almost disappointed to see they’d put on shorts. Their private discussion had been heated and passionate but never rose above a whisper, and she failed to pick up on a single word, despite straining to hear. They were two huge, hulking men, taller and thicker than the average man, she realized. Their size made them intimidating, yet for some reason she didn’t feel scared. Despite Carter’s roughness with her earlier, she somehow felt he had only good intentions. He wouldn’t have hurt her.
In his eyes she sensed a fierce protectiveness, a beastly, brutish sort of chivalry, along with his undeniable desire for her.
But how did he know she wasn’t “Tanya”? It had to have been more than just a hunch. He seemed certain of it. Was she really such a bad liar?
The men stood before her, their perfect musculature gleaming in the moonlight. They were roughly the same size and height, but where Carter was a clear blue summer’s day, Max was a dark night in November. He was raven-haired like her, but it was cut short and swept back. His eyes were a dark brooding charcoal, bordered by thick, black lashes and expressive brows. He had an olive complexion, his chiseled jaw cleanly shave, his lips thick. He looked neater than Carter, more polished and refined. Perhaps slightly older.
The intensity of his gaze made her weak in the knees, and once aga
in she found her pulse quickening. An unknown force deep inside her cried out with desperate need. What the hell was wrong with her? She’d known this man for all of two minutes, but she was already helplessly drawn in by his magnetic presence. Being uncontrollably horny around Carter was bad enough. But now Max, too? What was it with these two guys?
It didn’t help that she’d already seen both of them fully nude and knew exactly what they had to offer.
“I apologize for the private conference,” Carter said, smiling. “We just needed to work a few things out.”
Max nodded. His face was stern, but there was fire brewing in his eyes. Jules couldn’t tell whether it was a flame of anger or one of passionate desire. Maybe both.
“Why did you attack him?” Jules asked Max.
Max rubbed his strong jaw, pondering.
“He’d seen you earlier today,” Carter answered for him. “He likes you. When he saw us together, he just... snapped, I guess.”
Max shot daggers at Carter.
“Is that true, Max?” Jules asked.
Their eyes met again, and a shiver of lust ran down Jules’s spine, settling and joining the pool of heat in between her legs. He nodded, silent.
“I know this is a lot for you to take in,” Carter said. “But we mean no harm. We both just... felt drawn to you.”
Jules didn’t know what to say. “It’s okay. I mean, I can’t really be mad. I’m too shocked to feel much of anything.”
Except desire, her mind added.
“If you don’t mind me asking, why did you run away from me?” Carter asked, his deep blue eyes searching hers for answers.
Jules inhaled deeply. “I don’t know. I guess I just have trust issues.”
Carter slapped Max on the shoulder and laughed. “Well, you’ll get along with Max here. Trust issues is his middle name.”
Safe with Her Bears Page 4
