The trees rustled again, and suddenly, Ryder burst through them, his eyes wild and gold. They instantly flickered up to Pamela and he caught her there, but he didn’t even look like him anymore. He looked like a man insane, as if he were about to completely lose control and turn into something dark and dangerous.
“You and your pack have to relent, Dash!” Ryder screamed as he began to circle the two men. Dean was standing with his arms big and wide, hunched out in front of him as if he were ready to strike. He looked like a boxer stepping into the ring, but there was something animalistic about him too, and Pamela could only guess what…
“You bears have been nothing but trouble since this news has broken,” Dash shouted back. “And now, you expect us to relent? Why would we? We’re the ones who are clearly going to be handling all this shit when it finally starts to unravel.”
“We need to work together,” Dean said sternly. “If we don’t, we’re even more vulnerable.”
Dash laughed. “All I know is, I want justice for the fact you’ve been conspiring with an enemy.”
“They’re not enemies,” Ryder said. “The girl is going to help us.”
Pamela’s heart practically leapt out of her mouth and she pushed herself further back on the balcony and out of sight, but she still needed to see what was about to unfold. She crouched down behind the table and chairs and peered out around them to watch the three men below as they started to circle each other again.
Two on one.
Surely, this wasn’t going to be good for Dash… whoever he was.
Pamela practically held her breath.
The place on her chest began to throb and she could sense that Ryder was reaching out to her, he didn’t want her to be afraid. She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to calm herself down, and then she opened them and moved out a little, nudging herself a little bit forward to try and see what was happening below.
The gardens of the hotel were enclosed by large fir trees. They were so lush and thick that it provided a complete enclosure, hidden from the rest of Main Street, but for anyone in the hotel looking out of their rooms, they too would surely be able to see everything that was about to happen.
“Back down,” Ryder said sternly.
Dash licked his teeth and grinned, and Pamela was sure she saw a flash of green work across his eyes.
She shuddered.
He had to be a wolf.
Dean cracked his knuckles and the three men kept circling each other. With each move, Pamela could sense they were beginning to change into their animal selves. She saw the change in Ryder almost immediately, the way he bared his teeth and held his hands. It was as if he wanted to claw out at Dash and maim him, and was having to use all his strength not to attack him right there and then.
“We don’t want this,” Dean said. “None of the bears do. And we don’t believe you do either.”
“It’s not a case of wanting it,” Dash snarled. “It’s a case of honor.”
“You have to admit, things have been strange around here,” Ryder growled. “Since the weather changed and the cold hit the mountain, all of us have been acting out of sorts. Everyone is more alert, and tensions have been rising. But we shouldn’t fight.”
“No?” Dash said cockily as he grinned. “I think you don’t want to fight because you’re all growing weak.”
His words were like venom, and Ryder recoiled before his back began to arch, and Pamela watched with a wide-open mouth as the man she was falling for turned in front of her very eyes. She watched as his growls became deeper and more guttural, as his skin ripped open and dark, black fur sprang up in its place. She saw his body crack and change, become bigger and hulking, a monster right there in front of her, but a monster she knew she would love, nonetheless.
She remembered the statue on Main Street, the violence that seemed to run through it, and she saw the same pain on Ryder’s face as the bear took him over. He had held on for so long, he had let Dash insult him and his pack, but now, he had snapped, and the beast within him had exploded in the most incredible way.
She could barely believe her eyes.
Ryder was now not a man at all, but a large, black, snarling, dangerous bear, rearing up on his back legs as Dean began to change beside him.
Dash stayed as a man for a second more, laughing and throwing back his head, before he too began to shudder, and his frame began to warp. She saw his nose elongate, his knuckles rip open and claws spring free in their place, his back lengthened, and his ears peaked in tips. In no time at all, he had changed into a gigantic wolf, and now, the two bears and the wolf were about to face off.
Pamela couldn’t watch. She buried her head in her hands as the place on her chest throbbed and tingled. She could feel Ryder and she was building up all her internal strength, hoping that he could take some from her and fight the good fight. She wasn’t ready to have him taken from her so soon. She was just getting to know him, falling faster each day, and he had claimed her…
She needed him, whether she wanted to admit it to herself or not. She may have been a strong and independent career girl, but since she had met Ryder, she had craved more.
She craved him and his touch.
And she was determined to have it.
The snarls and growls grew louder and the howling of wolves seemed to rumble throughout the valley. When she finally worked up the courage to peer over the balcony, she could see a swarm of huge animals all charging at each other in the gardens of the hotel, rolling into the shadows of the trees and tearing each other apart. More bears and wolves had joined, and now, the fight was equal, and Pamela covered her eyes again, unable to watch any more.
She prayed silently on the balcony, as she gripped the leg of the patio chair and wished for Ryder to be okay. Her heart beat harder and the knot of nerves in her stomach began to work its way up her throat. She had never suffered an anxiety attack before, but she felt dizzy and out of her body for a moment, as if she was about to pass out.
The noises kept getting louder and the growls and snarls and the snaps of jaws raged hell down below. Pamela peered one more time over the balcony and she could see one bear and one wolf left, squaring up to each other and preparing to charge.
The bear was brown, so she knew it wasn’t Ryder, but she placed her hand over her heart and hoped with all her might for this fight to end peacefully and for no blood to be shed.
She darted through the doors of the balcony and back into her hotel room, slamming them closed, locking them behind her. Her hands were shaking, and she could barely breathe, but she knew that she had just witnessed something that was about to change history.
If she ever had a doubt about the existence of magic in Bridge Hollow, then she had now been completely corrected. There were packs of bears and wolves, half men and half beasts… and she was eternally linked to one of them.
The place on her chest throbbed and she broke down and fell to her knees. As the tears sprang from her eyes, all she could do was sob and thank the Lord that he was all right.
She could still feel him within her… Ryder was safe.
12.
She wrung her hands together and paced up and down the bedroom floor, her feet practically making tracks in the carpet with each stomp as she went.
Her mind was racing, and so was her heart. She had never seen anything like it before and she had no clue how she was even going to begin processing it all.
She had seen Ryder turn into a bear. She had seen Dean turn into a bear. And she had seen a stranger, called Dash, turn into a wolf.
“This whole thing is fucking insane,” she whispered to herself as she paced over and over.
She felt tears rise up behind her eyes again, and she wanted to just bury her head under the pillow, but so much had happened, there was no way she was going to be able to rest until she knew what had happened to Ryder.
Her chest throbbed and she knew that he was still alive. She placed her hand over the point where he had imprin
ted on her and she felt the heat within it. She closed her eyes and focused. She wanted to draw him to her, to feel the invisible chord between them tightening as she summoned him closer and closer.
She jumped as she heard a noise somewhere down the hall of the hotel and she gasped as she felt her heart begin to pound. A feeling of terror began to creep up the back of her neck and she was frozen in place, not daring to move as she heard the heavy footsteps come down the hallway, toward her room.
The place on her chest grew hotter with each step and her nerves quickly began to subside. A heavy knock rumbled through the door and she ran to it, placing her palms flat on the wood so she could feel the energy coming from the other side.
She peered through the peephole and she exhaled a rush of relief.
Ryder.
He was there.
She reached for the handle and opened the door as he rushed through it and swept her up into his arms.
“Are you okay?” he panted.
He had blood spilling from a cut on his forehead and his clothing was ripped and shredded. He had managed to put them back on somehow, but there was no way he would have been able to walk down Main Street. He must have grabbed the ripped up t-shirt and pants from the back of the hotel gardens and slipped them on as best he could as he came for her.
“Me? Of course, I’m okay… all I care about is you…”
She reached up and held onto his face with both hands as she studied him. Cuts and bruises were coming out deeper as the seconds passed by, and Pamela closed the door behind him and locked it with both the chain and deadlock.
“Are we safe here?” she asked as she moved toward the desk and grabbed a chair to push up against the doorknob.
“Yes,” he panted. “Don’t worry. No wolves will be coming here. This is bear territory, after what just happened, they wouldn’t dare.”
“Is Dean okay?” she asked.
Ryder nodded. “And Dash… everyone is fine.”
“But the fight?”
Ryder winced as he clutched his side and Pamela helped him over to the bed and made him lie down. She ran to the bathroom and ran the faucet to fill the sink with warm water, and then she sunk a towel in it before she squeezed out the excess and went back to him.
“The fight was inevitable,” he said lowly. “Tensions have been rising for weeks, if not months, and all of these strange phenomena are only making things worse. It was always going to go down that way.”
“But it looked so brutal,” she whispered as she dabbed at the cut on his forehead.
Ryder smiled and gave a half laugh.
“That was nothing,” he winked. “Believe me.”
Pamela allowed herself to smile. She was so glad that he was okay. Just having him there beside her, after seeing what had just happened, was the most amazing feeling in the world.
Ryder laid down and let her tend to his wounds. She dabbed at the cuts and rubbed in antiseptic, before she went down the hall to the ice machine and made a pack to cool his bruises.
“You sure you haven’t done this before?” Ryder joked as she laid beside him once he was patched up and on the road to recovery. He could only have been with her for an hour, but already, his cuts were beginning to heal over and disappear and the bruises were beginning to fade. She reached out and touched one of them, and he smiled.
“One of the perks of being what I am…,” he said gruffly. “Means I don’t stay hurt for long. Magic blood…” He winked.
She smiled and laughed a little as she cuddled into him, and he wrapped his arm around her.
“Thank you for coming to me,” she whispered.
Ryder kissed the top of her head, and then she looked up at him. His eyes were still tinged with gold, but there was also the humanness to them that had drawn her in, in the first place. He cupped her cheek with his hand and kissed her on the lips and she rolled into him, pressing her body up close and wanting to be with him fully.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he grabbed her by the waist with his other hand and pulled her on top of him. She gasped as his hot tongue searched her mouth and massaged against hers. She could feel the power within him; he was so strong and masculine, and she wanted to be completely at his mercy.
He gripped her hips and pulled her along his crotch, his jeans barely covering him. She knew he was naked under there, and so was she beneath the robe.
Her body was responding to him in the most incredible of ways. Her nipples hardened and her pussy ached for him, she was wet and hot all over, her skin tingling and her hands clawing out at him, pulling him as close to her as she could get him as he flipped her onto her back and dropped on top of her.
He kissed her neck and pulse points, and she groaned with pleasure. His hands gently squeezed her breasts over the top of the silk robe, and she parted her legs and coaxed him between them. She was so ready for him, she had been ready for him the moment they had first laid eyes on each other, but she had been denying it to herself. She hadn’t wanted to admit that she could feel this way after all she had promised herself as she had been working toward her career and goals.
She felt his hard cock through the rip of his jeans, and she opened her legs wider. She was soaking wet and aching for him, her pussy throbbing for his touch. Ryder grunted as she ripped at his tattered t-shirt and it fell to bits in her hands, exposing his huge, hulking muscles. It wasn’t just him turning into the animal now; whatever he had done to her was ensuring that she was raw and fevered for him too.
He grabbed her wrists and pinned them high above her head with one hand as he trailed kisses down her neck to her chest. He stopped over the place where he had first touched her and bonded them forever, and he kissed it hard and hot, making it pulsate beneath his lips.
Pamela groaned and arched her back, opening her legs wider and digging her feet into the back of his knees. She wanted him inside of her and she couldn’t take it any longer. She had been waiting for this moment for so long, not just since she had met Ryder, but from the moment she had longed for love and denied herself it.
This was real.
This wasn’t something she could walk away from.
She needed this man, and he needed her.
Ryder’s big hand reached down for the tie on her robe and she gasped and held her breath as he undid it slowly and let it fall open. He looked down at her soft and ripened body, and she could see the pull of desire take him over. The bear in him wanted to spring forward, but he was reining him in.
“You’re incredible,” he panted as she wriggled a hand free and clawed at what was left of his jeans.
She pulled them off, the rips in them making it easy for her to tear them away, and his perfect, hard and thick cock sprang free.
She reached down and wrapped her hand around it and groaned when she felt how wide he was. He was so big, she didn’t know how she would take him, but she knew she had never wanted anything more in her entire life.
Ryder grunted and growled as she jacked him over and over, and when he couldn’t take it any longer, he pinned her back down, holding onto his shaft and positioning himself right at her opening.
They looked into each other’s eyes, and Pamela knew that from this moment forward, she was going to be changed forever. She was already in love with Ryder, but once he took her body as well as her heart, she knew that her future would be there in Bridge Hollow with him, and she was so ready for that journey.
As he thrust himself inside of her, splitting her in two and opening her up in ways she had never felt before, Pamela’s whole body rushed full of his heat and her head began to spin. She was in so much ecstasy, she couldn’t focus on anything but the wave of pleasure she was riding.
Ryder pounded himself into her, again and again, each time his thighs becoming tenser and his cock harder. She could feel him becoming more animalistic and growls were beginning to escape from his lips, but she wasn’t afraid. In fact, the bear that was so clearly lurking beneath the surface of Ryder’s s
kin was turning her on even more.
He thrust, and she felt the pulse of his cock deep inside of her and it made her whole body unravel around him as her pussy gripped him tightly and she began to come. She bucked her hips and wrapped her legs tightly around him, driving him as deep as possible inside of her as she jerked and screamed in total ecstasy.
She had never had an orgasm like it, and Ryder could clearly tell that he had fucked her so good that she was losing her mind. She continued to scream as the pleasure rocketed through her, and as he saw her unraveling, he couldn’t hold on any longer.
He thrust into her, his huge, thick, hard cock exploding inside of her. He groaned and growled as he spilled his seed deep within her cunt and sealed their bond forever more. Pamela wailed with pleasure as Ryder came hard and heavy. He pushed himself down on her, completely taking over her body and claiming her forever.
She kissed him and ran her hands through his hair, feeling the graze of stubble from his chin rub rawly at the delicate skin of her face, and she had never felt more at home in somebody’s arms. She spasmed beneath him and he pumped his cock into her one last time, as he groaned and grunted, the man and the bear completely satisfied and subdued.
They laid together in each other’s arms, and Ryder trailed his fingertips down her soft hips and kissed her on the top of her head.
Never before had either of them experienced such a magical and more meaningful connection, and now, they were each other’s for life.
Pamela had never considered what it meant to be claimed by a bear. But now that she had experienced the love that came with it, both physical and emotional, she couldn’t imagine it any other way.
This man had come into her life out of nowhere, and now, he had changed it forever.
They cuddled together as the sun set over Bridge Hollow and the night began to roll in. Pamela was sure she could feel more of a chill in the air than usual, but Ryder was so exhausted that he fell asleep soundly beside her and slept the entire night.
Bridge Hollow Shifters: The Complete Collection Page 20
