Illusory Moon

by Renee Jordan

  I rubbed my breasts harder into his fur as I humped my hips. His hairs tickling my nipples and areolas inflamed me. The pleasure swelled in my core, compelling me to grind my pussy harder into his flesh. My fingers tightened in his fur as it grew and grew.

  “Thomas,” I panted. “Oh, Thomas. Yes, yes.”

  He howled again. Such passion in his roar. And, mixed in with the guttural snarl, was a single word: “Come!”

  Thomas wanted me to embrace my passion. He wanted me to surrender to the bliss of riding him. It was a wicked form of foreplay. It drove me wild. My head snapped back, thrusting my face to the blue sky above, the sun shining down on us.

  Warming my flesh.

  My orgasm burst inside of me. I bucked on his back. My thighs gripped him tight, holding him like I would my lover thrusting into me. I shuddered on him, my writhing body caressed by his fur as the pleasure washed through my body.

  “Thomas,” I moaned over and over. “My big bear. Yes, yes. God, yes.”

  The words mixed with his roar. I trembled as the pleasure increased. My fingers tightened in his fur, holding on to him. I was close to letting go, to surrendering my body to all the pleasure, but then I would fall off of him.

  I would lose our connection.

  I held on, humping against him, letting his fur spur my pleasure to crash over and over through me. To keep washing through me. To please and tease me. I gasped and cried out. The winds howled around me. Air spirits danced around me, mixed with their golden-hearted brethren.

  Love spirits, summoned by my passion.

  “Thomas,” I moaned, my body growing weak as my nerves spasmed with pleasure. Another orgasm crashed through me. “Thomas, please.”

  And then he stopped. The world spun around me. Soft grass embraced me. I ended on my back. The bear over me. Primal, hungry. His tongue licked at my stomach, warm and wet. I trembled, my orgasms still burning.

  The tongue grew smaller, the bear retreating, leaving only the man to love me. Thomas's face appeared, eyes black with lust, his muscles bulging, his tongue teasing my bellybutton. I groaned and humped against him. His strong hands slid up to my breasts. He squeezed them.

  Then his eyes flicked up at me. They caught mine over my heaving breasts. The imprint rushed at me. Strong, demanding. He wanted to love me. I had to surrender to his passion, let myself be carried away.

  My fears clutched at my heart.

  And then his fingers brushed my nipples. Strong, pleasurable. His hands clenched about my tits. He could protect me. Love me. I didn't have to be afraid of my past. I had pushed aside other men, fearing they would despise me if they learned the truth about my past.

  But that wasn't how the imprint worked. It was love, true love, the kind of love at first sight that only seemed to exist in the stories. But it was real for the shifters, part of their animal heritage. Primal, passionate, beyond such human thoughts. It worked at the instinctual level, springing up between individuals that were compatible.

  Meant to be together.

  It was my choice. I could fight it, drive him away, lose this chance.

  His fingers rubbed circles on my nipples, sending flutters through my body.

  I could be bold. Seize it. Find the happiness Kotie had. The happiness Lexie and Axel had.

  I surrendered. It was so easy. It snapped between us. My heart beat faster. The love spirits hovering around us burst for joy. Inside my heart was always the possibility to love this man, and now it flourished in me as I relaxed.

  “Thomas,” I breathed, shuddering as he lowered his face to my pussy and licked.

  The pleasure mixed with the joy beating in my heart, a wonderful counterpoint, feeding on each other. They wrapped and entwined, enhancing and complimenting the other. The love made the pleasure sweet, and the pleasure made my love radiant.

  “Thomas,” I moaned again.

  And he answered with a growling, possessive, “Penny.”

  I laid back on the grass and let him work his magic with his tongue. He licked through my flesh, exploring me, devouring me with a hunger he hadn't shown last night. The bear was still in him, growling out of him as he plumbed the depths of my passion.

  Excited by the foreplay of his fur, my orgasms crashed through me. I thrashed on the fields. The flowers and grasses tickled my sides. Petals kissed my heaving breast. My every breath carried the mixed perfume of all the flowers, the purity of nature.

  My body heaved. “Thomas,” burst from my mouth over and over. The sounds of my passion echoed across the meadow, mixing with his hungry growls. He slid his hands down, holding my thighs, keeping me pressed against his face.

  A bear eating the sweetest honey.

  The pleasure swept over me again and again. And then I realized how selfish I was. “Thomas, fuck me. Take me. You need to feel amazing, too.”

  “I do,” he growled between licks.

  “And you'll feel even more amazing in me,” I grinned. “I know I will.”

  He laughed.

  I seized his grizzled chin, loving how rough he felt on my palms, and pulled him up my body. His muscular form draped over me. So strong and powerful. I pulled him tight and wrapped my legs about him. My right hand slid down, stroking his muscular side before reaching between us and finding his shaft.

  My pussy clenched. He was so thick. I loved him inside of me. “Take me,” I moaned while staring into his eyes. I could lose myself in those dark depths.

  And then he was in me. It was wonderful. Pleasure burst through me as my flesh stretched about his girth. My toes curled. My thighs tightened about his waist. I held him to my chest. My nipples rubbed against his muscles as he moved.

  He thrust.

  “Penny.”

  I shuddered as he growled my name. I ran my hands across the muscles of his body, worshiping him as he took me over and over. His shaft buried into my depths. My pussy reached new heights of rapture beneath him.

  I orgasmed again.

  “Thomas,” I moaned. “Yes, yes. I love you in me. I love you.”

  The words flowed from my mouth. I had never said them to another, but the imprint had me. It felt right, even necessary, to say it. He thrust harder. His finger stroked my cheek as he stared down at me with passion in his eyes.

  “My Penny,” he growled. “My love.”

  I hardly knew the man, but I loved him. My soul rejoiced as I kissed him hard. And then, to my utter delight, he rolled us onto his back. I was on top of him, stretched out across his torso. My hips undulated as my legs shifted.

  “You want me to ride you?” I asked.

  “You were having so much fun earlier,” he growled, his strong hands squeezing my plump ass.

  “You just want to see my big titties bounce,” I moaned, sitting up, my breasts dangling down, shifting as I worked my hips.

  “I do.”

  I loved his honesty.

  I leaned back, thrusting my tits out before me. The sun kissed them. My nipples were hard. I pinched them as his hands stroked my ass and belly, working around my body as my hips rose and fell. His cock brushed different parts of my pussy as I worked my hips and rode my bear.

  My bear.

  I liked that.

  “Thomas,” I hissed as I rode him, my fingers reaching down to rake through his hairy chest. As my pleasure grew, the harder my fingers scratched. I left red lines behind. He was strong. He could take my little scratches.

  My head tossed about as I rode him, eyes flashing across the valley. Anyone could come upon us, loving each other amid nature. I didn't care. What we did was beautiful. The entire world could watch me make love to my bear.

  I slammed down his cock with that thought, grinding my clit into his groin. My orgasm burst through me. I gasped and shuddered. My eyes fluttered in my head. I groaned and my pussy clenched, tightened, spasmed, then burst.

  “Thomas,” I screamed. I hoped people heard. I hoped they came and saw the pleasure my bear gave me.

  His hands slid up my sides
. He gripped my breasts and thumbed my nipples as I spasmed on him. I shuddered, trying to keep my thighs rising, but the muscles in my legs burned and the pleasure was too much for my coordination. I could only thrash.

  I collapsed on his chest, moaning my bliss. His hands gripped my ass, holding tight to my plump cheeks, and slid me up and down his cock. I groaned, smiling as I pressed my face into his hairy chest. The pleasure rippled through me as his growls grew.

  “Come,” I begged of him between kissing his hairy chest. “Let it out. You don't have to hold on any longer. Enjoy yourself.”

  His fingers dug into my asscheeks. Iron. He pulled me down his cock. I shuddered, my clit sliding through his wiry pubic hair. A mini-orgasm quaked through me. My flesh spasmed about his dick. He growled louder.

  And then his come flooded me.

  I laid on his chest, shuddering as we both shared our pleasure. His heart thundered beneath my ear. His hands stroked me as his growls quieted. I closed my eyes, breathing in deeply. I never wanted to leave this meadow.

  I wanted to stay here forever in his arms.

  We would always be happy here.

  Chapter Seven

  I still buzzed from our lovemaking in the wildflower meadow the next day at work. I bounced around the Moon Tear Roadhouse, serving the patrons, not caring when they patted my backside. They were just being friendly. And I was too happy to even slap their wrists away.

  I relived the memory of Thomas over and over. How we had made love. I had never been with a man as wonderful. My heart ached. I was so sad this morning when he had to go to work. I missed him. I just wanted to be in his arms.

  We didn't even have to make love. We spent last night cuddling on the couch, making a little den, hibernating as we binged on Netflix, my head on his chest, his hand stroking my hair. It didn't matter what we watched, just that we were doing it together.

  Giddiness burst out of me at any moment. I couldn't contain myself as I swayed through the crowded bar. I gave everyone a smile, greeting them by name. Strangers were rare in the Moon Tear Roadhouse. And after the Donovan Clan, a pack of coyote shifters, attacked Forrest and Kotie a few months back, they had cleared out of town and stopped polluting the bar with their yapping.

  Whenever I caught a break, I found myself craning my neck, looking for Kotie across the bar. And then I would remember she was gone. Off on her honeymoon in Yellowstone National Park of all places. For Kotie and her wolf, it was a place to explore and see the romance of nature. I had scoffed at the idea until riding on Thomas through the meadow.

  Nature definitely had perks.

  But I wished she was here. I wanted so badly to talk to her. We could press our heads together and giggle about our big, sexy shifters. I would regale her with every detail, loving the way her cheeks would grow redder and redder like she was a thirteen-year-old girl instead of a woman grown.

  I had pried some juicy stories out of Kotie. Forrest was wild, and she let herself be adventurous with her wolf.

  “Penny,” the sharp voice of Miss Maggie snapped me out of my giggles.

  “Yes,” I beamed at her, skipping to the bar.

  Miss Maggie raised an eyebrow. She was a stout woman, her face normally ruddy from laughing and always lined with her age. But her motherly smile was gone, replaced by a stern gaze which, combined with tight bun of gray hair, made her disapprove with the best church marm.

  “Stop flouncing around my bar. You're no ballerina and this isn't the Bolshoi Ballet. You're here to work.” She thrust a tray covered in beer bottles. “Table 6's order.”

  “Sorry,” I said, and then another giggle popped out of my lips. “The Bolshoi Ballet? I didn't know you were into ballet.”

  “Child, you hardly know a tenth of my life.” She sniffed, her nose snuffling like a bear. “Just because you finally found a decent man is no cause to dance around my bar.”

  “Decent, huh?”

  “Of course he's decent.” Miss Maggie's eyes narrowed. “Almost too decent for you, Penny. Don't you be hurtin' him.”

  “Shouldn't you be lecturing Thomas?”

  “He's a bear. They protect their mates. They don't hurt 'em. But you, Penny, you're human. A decent one, I'm sure, I saw it in you when you stumbled off the bus scared out of your wits. You ran from something. Something bad. I never asked, none of my business, but I can see it in your eyes. Don't run on him.”

  “I wouldn't,” I said, a knife cutting through my joy. “What happened...well, it won't happen again. I'm not that person. I won't run on Thomas.”

  “You've run from every other man that tried to get close to you since I've known you.”

  I blinked at that. “I wasn't dating anyone. Just having fun.”

  “That's what I mean. You were running from them. Hiding behind that silly nonsense about booty calls and one-night stands.” Miss Maggie shook her head. “When I was your age, we birched girls like you. Taught them manners.”

  “And the boys they fucked around with?” I asked, a hot gust shooting through me. She was trying to slut shame me.

  “Oh, we caned them even harder.” A grin split Miss Maggie's lips and then she laughed. “The way those cubs howled. I'd take the birch to you if I thought it would whack some sense into you. But I can't. So I'm warning you, don't be a coward. Don't run from him. It'll destroy him. You'll survive breaking the imprint.

  “It ain't so simple for us. Especially bear shifters.” The emotion fell from her face. For a moment, a tear beaded in the corner of her eye and then she blinked it away. “Now get out there and serve drinks. You're here to work, child.”

  “Yes, Miss Maggie,” I said, taking the tray. “I don't plan on running from him. He was more than a one-night stand.” My smile beamed. “So much more.”

  Maggie grunted and turned around to fiddle with the bar.

  I stopped flouncing through the bar. Maggie's words cut out some of my joy, not all of it, I still had a smile on my face, but a worry niggled at the back of my mind. Why did she have to bring up my past? I didn't want to think about it. I wasn't the same Penny as back then. I wouldn't run from Thomas.

  That was foolishness. How could I run from such bliss?

  ~ ~ ~

  My feet ached when it was finally closing time. I hurried with my cleaning duties, setting bar stools and chairs on their tables, sweeping the floor while Miss Maggie did the dishes. I had no idea how she did it. It was past 2 AM and she would be back here at 10 AM to open the bar. And with Kotie on her honeymoon, she would run the lunch shift all by herself.

  She was a tough old bear. Tougher than me. I was such a wimp. I wanted to go home and crawl into bed. I wished Thomas was there, but he was in Olson, and that was just too far to drive tonight. I yawned as I untied my apron and hung it on a rack in the kitchen.

  “I'm taking off Miss Maggie.”

  “Okay,” she called from the kitchen. “Be safe driving home.”

  “It's Moonrise,” I said, rolling my eyes, “and Kotie's out of town, so no deranged ex-boyfriends or tyrannical fathers are gonna show up causin' problems.”

  Miss Maggie snorted with laughter. “That girl did liven things up.”

  I shook my head. Kotie's dick of a father did not liven things up when he took us hostage. He was one powerful witch.

  My drive home was blessedly short. My eyes were bleary as I drove through the empty streets of Moonrise. It was a familiar route, one I could navigate in my sleep. And given how tired I was, that may have happened. I pulled my truck into my driveway and stumbled out. My feet ached. I pulled out my keys and my wad of tips—the miners were always generous with their tips. They made a lot and had nothing to spend it on, especially since the local prostitution dried up when the Donovan clan ran from town.

  I stumbled into my house, dropped my tips into a jar on my kitchen counter, probably not the safest place for them, and peeled off my shoes as I stumbled through the house. I flipped on the lights of my bedroom and flounced onto my bed.

 
Paper crinkled beneath me.

  “The fuck,” I muttered, blinking my eyes. I rolled up, a glossy picture stuck to my shoulder. I peeled it off my skin and froze.

  I screamed and dropped it, throwing myself from the bed. I crashed into my dresser. It creaked and rocked on its feet as I stared in horror at my bed. Pictures covered it. Bright, colored pictures of a crime scene, with rulers in each one to give scale. CSI photos.

  I shuddered. I didn't want to look at the dead body shown in each. There had to be hundreds of angles of Axel's body pictured. And scrawled across the bottom of each of them in bright, red, angry letters was: “All your fault.”

  Tears beaded my eyes. What was happening?

  “No,” I croaked, shaking my head, not wanting to look. “No, no, no. I got away from this.”

  I shoved my hand into my pocket and ripped out my phone. My fingers shook as they swiped the screen and navigated my contacts. I found Thomas and dialed his. Someone had been in my house? Who? Why would they leave these pictures? How had they even found me? I changed my last name. And Miss Maggie wasn't one for paying real paychecks.

  It had been five years. I escaped.

  The phone rang and rang. I tried not to stare at the pics, but my eyes kept drawing to them. A morbid dread filled me as I studied them. My vision grew blurry. The tears leaked down my face as I shivered.

  “Hello?”

  Thomas's gruff voice, mixed with sleep, startled me. I let out a yelp and jumped. I spun around, looking away from the pics and the accusations. But I felt the pictures staring at me from behind, boring into my eyes.

  “Hello? Penny? Is that you, Penny?”

  “Yes,” I said, trying to control myself. Another shudder racked me.

  “What's wrong?” he asked.

  My mouth opened to blurt out, “My house was broken into and someone left crime scene photos on my bed,” when I froze. Thomas was a cop. And I wasn't always a saint. I couldn't tell him about Axel and Lexie. He wouldn't understand. Worse, he would have to arrest me. I was sure there was a warrant for my arrest from Vegas and probably LA. Whether Lexie told the cops about me or they figured out I must have been working with Lexie on their own, I would be in a lot of trouble. My life would be over.