“We both know it takes more than brute strength,” Mikhail said. “We need to get the word out, though. To calm what’s left of the clan, especially the young ones.”
“I agree,” Alexei said. “I don’t want to see any father lose another son. I content myself now at least to know that he’s alive, even if he will only live half his nature.”
Mikhail nodded, then turned to his friend. “Have you heard anything about Boris making noise, encouraging some of these young people to go Rogue? He sent Marina away.” He sighed. “We have Viktor; Ivan is trying to calm him.”
“Yes. Boris is a problem. But he resents your family, Mikhail. He always has. He’s a small, petty man. He wasn’t much better as a bear back when he could shift. But don’t worry. I’ll make sure news gets out about the hunters. It’ll make it harder for Boris to stir the pot.”
Mikhail stood. “I hope so.” He clapped his friend on the back. “How’s Elana?”
“Coping,” he said. “She knew when she married me that mothering my children would bring special challenges. She was so happy when Sasha was born, because she wouldn’t have to worry. When Sergei was born… she cried for two days. But then she told me she’d have to live with the fear. And she did. She sits outside at night, you know, watching the hills. I think a small part of her will always hope he returns.”
“A mother’s hope,” Mikhail said. “It’s her strength.”
“How about you?” Alexei said. “Any mate for you yet? Being older doesn’t make you immune.”
“I’m working on it,” Mikhail said. But that was as far as he’d go. Jordan was an outsider, and he didn’t want to cause problems just when things looked to be settling down.
Chapter Ten
“I can get you some more books in English if you’d like.”
Jordan didn’t hear Mikhail walk in. It had been over a day since she’d seen him. During that time Ivan had come and gone, and her only other company had been the housekeeper, who was kind but spoke little English.
Now, at the unexpected arrival of Mikhail, she stood, hugging the book she’d been studying to her chest. It was a volume on native wildlife she’d found on a shelf in the library, and even though she didn’t understand the text, she’d been appreciating the pictures.
“Thank you,” she said, taking a step back and pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. Then she put the book down.
“Tell me what’s going on? Who is that man in the building? I… realize now there are things in this world I don’t understand, things I can’t explain. And I realize that what I’ve seen may…” she crossed her arms over her chest, “…may make it impossible for me to go home.”
“Not may ,” he said. “It is impossible, Jordan. I am sorry.” He gestured toward the sofa. “Sit?”
It was the first time he’d asked her to do something instead of commanding her.
“The man in the building is named Viktor Ivenko. He is not part of an experiment, and he is not mad. He is a member of an ancient race of humans who inhabit dual worlds—the world of man, and the world of the bear.”
“And so… you’re guarding their secret?”
“No, Jordan,” he said. “I’m guarding our secret.”
“Our…” She stood, then turned back. “You’re like… like Viktor? You’re like that man in the building? A…”
“A monster?” he asked.
“Viktor is not in control of himself. When there is order, security, we can keep control. But when there is chaos and fear, our kind—BearKynd—find it difficult to control the shifts.”
“It was you, wasn’t it?” she asked. “In the diplomat’s house?”
“Yes,” he said. “You were so close, Jordan Rowe. Because you are a smart woman. Yuri had betrayed us. He is from my village, put in power with my money. I went to remind him that his loyalty was to our kind, and not to the rich Americans seeking to expand their hunting expeditions.”
She pondered this. “Is he… like you?”
“Yuri Adanov? No. But the people here know of us. We co-exist, and they know it is in their best interest to keep order. What’s happening now has happened before, in 2008 and several times before records were kept, often in times of strife. The threat is greater now. With technology, we risk being seen, recorded.”
She thought of her phone. Then she thought of something else, and her voice shook as she asked the question to which she already knew the answer.
“And Ivan Kolov?”
“Yes,” he said, and she turned away, feeling suddenly sick.
“You fucked him.” It was a statement, not a question, and she turned, angry.
“What?”
Mikhail rose and walked over. “There is no cause for shame. We are a virile race. Sex is necessary. You think you are powerless here? You have more power than you know.”
“What do you mean?”
“My cousin and I are close. He is my right-hand man. We are the leaders of these people.” He motioned to the picture on the wall. “I fear I may be the last of the Bear Kings if we cannot bring peace. And if Ivan and I are lost, it will all fall apart. A woman’s body, dominating it, bringing it pleasure… it steadies us. It keeps us in control.”
She stepped back. “He was using me?” Tears stung her eyes.
“No,” he said. “We can take our pleasure with any woman. But only one can be our mate. Only she can control the beast within.” He reached for her. “The night I punished you, I knew. The way you responded, your body… it called to me. Ivan saw it, too.”
Jordan couldn’t move. “What are you saying? That you kept me here for this?”
He shook his head. “No. If it were safe for you to leave, we’d have given you a choice, Jordan. But you cannot go home, not with what you know. But you still have a choice of whether you want this…”
“This?” she asked, but she already knew by the way he was looking at her. It wasn’t just Ivan who wanted her. It was his cousin as well.
“Ivan and I agreed that if we found the right woman—one who responded to both of us, who we responded to—that we’d both love her, protect her, and pleasure her almost beyond bearing. But the one thing we’d not do is force her.”
Jordan’s knees felt weak. When she’d been with Ivan, she’d never imagined sex could be so incredible. And now to think that this man wanted her, too? She flushed, remembering how he’d spanked her, how it had hurt, but also how it had aroused her.
He was walking over to her now.
“Will you stay with us, Jordan?”
“I don’t know you,” she said.
“You do,” he said. “You know us. You know our darkest secrets. Our desires.” She could feel the heat coming off his body. The closeness was making her almost lightheaded, and she realized that her heart was pounding. He reached for her.
“Make your home here, with us, Jordan Rowe. Help us.”
How could she say yes? But how could she say no when her body was screaming for him? She felt her lips part, could feel the delicious ache between her legs. His hand moved to the waistband of her jeans, undoing the snap. His gaze held hers as tightly as the arm that moved around her waist.
“The housekeeper…” she began, her voice barely audible.
“…has been sent home for the day.” He finished her sentence as a hand moved down the back of her pants, squeezing her left buttock. His other hand moved up to squeeze her breast. His eyes were filled with a raw desire that almost frightened her.
“You should know,” he said, “that I am not a gentle lover.”
She thought again of the spanking, of his power. She felt fear mingle with excitement. He removed his hand from her breast, but used the one still in her pants to push her forward over the back of the sofa. She gasped at the force of it, and gasped again as she felt him jerk her pants down.
He was undoing his belt. Jordan looked back in time to see him free a cock that was long and thick. She was already wet, but her heart pounded at the thought of her
still-tender pussy being filled by Mikhail.
He was playing with her clit, pinching it until she squirmed.
“Hold still,” he said, but she could not, and cried out when he began to spank her, striking her first on the left cheek and then on the right until her eyes stung with tears and she was whimpering.
“Hold still,” he said again. There was a growl in his words, and Jordan was aware of the beast he’d referenced, the wild nature just below the surface. And she could tell it was not as subverted as it was with Ivan, and that his need for her was something feral, something different.
But she wanted it, wanted it in a way she couldn’t understand. Jordan had never allowed herself to feel helpless until now, and here she was, giving her body to a man who’d warned her that he would love her in a manner she wasn’t used to.
He pushed into her then, overfilling her pussy without preamble. She hissed at the slight discomfort and then cried out as he ripped her shirt from the neck to the hem, baring her back. His teeth found her shoulder, biting her just hard enough to hurt, his one hand under her chin, holding her still, the other hand on her clit, pressing and pinching and teasing, and then fucking her hard—harder than she’d ever been fucked in her life—driving her into the sofa with such ferocity that it took her breath away.
And she responded, the walls of her pussy quivering and pulsing and gripping the huge cock, but unable to hold as it slipped in and out of her slick passage as his balls slapped against her labia.
She screamed, gripping the sofa, but no sooner was her orgasm over than he’d pulled out and turned her to face him, lifting her now so that she was straddling his waist. He rammed her down on his cock, his teeth ripping off her bra. Jordan arched her back, her hands scrabbling in his short hair as he captured a nipple in a sucking bite that sent a current of raw, electric pleasure from the hardened peak to her pussy.
“Aaaah!” She was coming again, holding on to him desperately as he drove into her, his up-thrusts corresponding with her cries, his huge cock angled in a way that put pressure on her special sweet spot behind her pubic bone. Her toes literally curled as she experienced a full-on G-spot orgasm that sent shockwaves of pleasure, and she felt herself eject arousal in a manner that she’d never done before, while at the same time Mikhail jammed a finger into her bottom and came with a roar.
Oh god, oh god, oh god.
Could this be real? He was still pulsing into her, and she clung to him as his creamy tribute filled and then leaked out around the cock still buried inside her. He’d remained dressed, she realized, but something about that was incredibly sensual, especially when she pondered her tattered clothing that lay on the floor.
He slipped from her body, gathering her into his arms, and stood. Jordan curled into his chest as he moved to the sofa and sat down.
“Next time,” he said, his lips in her hair, “we will take you together.”
Chapter Eleven
Viktor wasn’t any better, and Ivan was growing concerned. The young man had always been something of a loner, and the loss of both his parents at a young age had left him perpetually resentful. He and Mikhail had been surprised that Viktor wasn’t the first to go Rogue, but perhaps the delay was because his mood swings were so obvious, and the two of them counseled the younger man whenever they could in an effort to keep him on the level.
His girlfriend Marina had helped, too. She wasn’t the prettiest girl in the village, but she’d been committed to Viktor, and without her to give him some stability in his life, he could be the most dangerous Rogue of all.
When he’d taken Viktor food that morning, the younger man had been in bear form and hadn’t turned toward Ivan’s voice. And for a few moments, Ivan thought he’d lost him. But he’d turned back, his human eye listless and disoriented as Ivan offered him breakfast.
“I want to help you,” he said.
“I’m beyond help.” Viktor had taken the bread and meat Ivan offered through the barred door. “Perhaps it would be best to just put a bullet in me. End this. This rage, this fear, this loneliness.” The single eye teared up. “If I thought being fully in the bear world would ease my pain, I’d let go. But I have a disadvantage.” He pointed at his eye. “I don’t want to go into the wild carrying the same daily fear of how to survive.”
“I know,” Ivan said. “And Mikhail and I want to help.”
“I understand, now that I’ve had time here to think.”
“I wish we’d thought to do this for others,” Ivan said, tapping the building. “But they didn’t always show signs like you have. Perhaps we can save you.”
“Any word on Marina?” Ivan’s voice was hopeful.
“Mikhail talked to her grandfather.”
Viktor sighed heavily. “He won’t tell me where he sent her.”
“He won’t tell us, either,” Ivan said. “All we can do is keep trying.”
“I’m sorry for what I did, to the woman,” Viktor said. He paused. “Why is she here?”
“She is a colleague of mine,” Ivan said. It wasn’t true, but it wasn’t exactly a lie, either, and he didn’t want to further upset Viktor with the truth. “I have good news,” he continued. “Viktor talked to Yuri Adanov. It’s been agreed to reduce the number of hunters coming to Kamchatka.”
“That is good news,” Viktor said, then he looked at Ivan desperately. “But I still feel scared.” He paused. “Don’t let me out, Ivan. Not like this.” He grasped his hand through the bars, his eye pleading. “Promise me.”
Ivan felt as if he could weep. “I promise,” he said. “We will continue to work. We’ll continue to search for Marina. We will make you better.”
* * *
Later that evening, Ivan filled his cousin in on what happened, and his concern for Viktor.
“I tried with Boris,” Mikhail said.
“I did, too,” Ivan confided. He looked over at where his cousin was sitting. “Today. I told him that we’re holding Viktor, told him how pained he is, that he’s a danger to himself and others if we can’t help him. I appealed to the man he used to be, before age made him bitter.”
“What did he say?”
“The same thing he said to you, that perhaps our time is over. He’s old and tired and resentful. This was the only way he can have an influence now. It hurts my heart to see him so bitter. He used to be a decent man.”
“Ivan…” Mikhail stood. “Do you think he’s right? Do you think the time for us is over? He is right. Kamchatka may be wild, but it grows less wild as the world grows smaller.”
“And we belong in it, no matter how much it changes. We walk in the wild, yes. But also in the civilized world, and we will adapt.” He smiled. “We both have reason to hope now.”
Ivan suddenly realized that his cousin looked less troubled and more relaxed than he had in a long time. Reality dawned on him.
“Jordan,” he said. “You…”
“Yes.” Mikhail nodded. “She’s… delicious.”
“She is,” Ivan said. He felt a tinge of jealousy, and imagine his cousin had felt the same the day he’d carried her back to the house.
“You explained?”
“Yes. She knows more now than any outsider.”
Ivan nodded, then grew quiet. “Mikhail,” he said. “Do you think Jordan will…”
“…will what?”
He looked up. “Do you think she will love us?”
His cousin walked over, smiling broadly. “Little cousin,” he said. “You have a romantic streak.”
“I do,” Ivan admitted. “I walk in both worlds in this way, too. She feeds my most primal needs, but I find myself wanting to pick wildflowers for her.” He looked down, embarrassed. “Don’t you want to do special things for her?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “She likes to read. I think I’ll get her books in English. And clothing. She brought so little.” He grinned wickedly. “Although I’d happily keep her naked.”
Both men laughed, but Ivan could detect a change in hi
s cousin that reflected his own unexpected transformation. They were already bonding with Jordan Rowe. He only hoped she felt the same way.
Chapter Twelve
Jordan was at dinner, wearing a full-length gown. The restaurant was elegant, the dishes artfully arranged on the table. Champagne sparkled in the three glasses as they were raised.
“To us,” Ivan said, and the glasses she and Mikhail held aloft clinked against his.
The men smiled at her.
“You look lovely tonight,” Mikhail said.
“She does.” Ivan smiled disarmingly. Then his face turned hard. “Lovely enough to eat.”
The table was upended as the men rose, their suits splitting as they changed into bears. She looked up from the floor as one knocked the table out of the way with his paws. Around them, the other diners seemed oblivious, although she screamed for help.
She was still screaming when she woke up, still screaming when the men both came running into her room. They sat on either side of her, their bodies warm and hard as they held and comforted her. But the dream clung to her like an icy hand, and she found herself rising from between them.
“Was it so bad, this nightmare?” Ivan asked.
Jordan was wearing a gown that they’d given her, one that had belonged to Ivan’s mother. It was simple and white, with an embroidered neckline. She knew she looked like a frightened child as she stood there in the gown and her bare feet, her arms crossed in front of her. And she felt a bit like a child, uncertain and afraid.
“Yes,” she admitted.
“Tell us,” Mikhail urged her.
“You changed. Both of you. Into bears. And you tried to hurt me.” She put her hands over her face and took a deep sigh.
“The subconscious…” Ivan began.
“Reveals what we don’t often face,” she replied. “And the truth is, while I understand my situation, understand why I’m here, while I feel… drawn to you both… there are still more questions than answers.” She turned away and looked out the window. The moon was waning, but still cast a light over the trees and the roof of the building where Viktor was being held.
Her Russian Bears Page 8
