“So, you find it hard, too? Even though you’re in a clan?” Molly asked, turning to look at him with wide, curious eyes that Graham could now see were the most beautiful shade of dark hazel, with the golden flecks that every shifter had. All shifter’s had gold in their eyes, but Graham was sure that Molly’s were the most beautiful he had ever seen.
Graham nodded and looked over at Molly, trying not to notice the way that even when she frowned, her lips looked perfectly kissable. “Of course, I do. My sister was killed by Anti-Ursa. When I was eight. It changed my whole life. I’ve never not wanted to be what I am, but it’s definitely made life a lot harder than it would have otherwise been. That’s why I took this job. I feel…responsible for all of us werebears after what happened to my sister Sarah. I want to protect us all from the bad guys, and since Anti-Ursa frequents this area, I figured being a ranger here was the best way to do that. But there are days when I wish I didn’t have to protect anyone when I wish I didn’t feel this burden weighing on my shoulders all the time.”
Graham saw the moment Molly connected him with Sarah Hendricks, a name that every werebear knew. Her death had been too widely covered by the national media for anyone to have ignored it.
“That was your sister?” Molly asked, scooting closer to Graham almost unconsciously.
Graham nodded. “Yeah. She was fifteen. My mom and I were getting groceries, and when we got back, she was just…gone.”
“I’m so sorry. That must have been so difficult to handle, especially with how young you were,” she said, taking Graham’s hand in hers and lacing her fingers through his. The contact sent tingles all over Graham’s arm, but it also felt right. Like being skin-to-skin was their natural state. It didn’t make any sense—after all, they’d only just met—but strangely, Graham didn’t question it. “But it’s good that you’re doing something productive with that grief,” she continued. “I mean, look at me. I’m a coward. I’ve basically just gone into hiding. Not that our situations are the same, but—”
Graham scooted an inch closer to Molly and turned her chin to face him. “You’re not a coward. You’re doing what is right for you. It sounds like maybe you needed to hibernate a bit after everything that happened. I mean, after all, you tainted the name of the white middle class’s favorite grocery store. That’s got to take some healing,” Graham said in a joking tone.
Molly snorted. “Yeah, that’s true. And I do write shifter romances. Try and show readers that love is love and all that.”
Graham shook his head. “See? You’re amazing, Molly. Smart and beautiful and…” Graham trailed off as he leaned toward Molly, suddenly certain there was no way he could continue speaking because he needed to know what she tasted like when he slid his tongue between her lips, needed to know if she would moan and lean against him or growl as she pulled him back toward her. He needed to know those things as much as he needed oxygen.
And when their lips met, Graham found she tasted like the sweetest honey, and he growled right along with her when she pulled him toward her.
Chapter 4
Graham Hendricks was one hell of a kisser, that was for sure. Molly, being somewhat of a recluse, hadn’t kissed all that many people in her life, but she had smooched enough to know that this far surpassed any kiss she’d ever been given. It was like Graham had a map to her body and knew exactly where to touch her to set her on fire. His hands roamed her torso, hair, and neck as he leaned into her, pressing his weight deliciously on top of her as they laid horizontal on the rock and kissed for so long and deep that Molly lost all track of time and space. That is until she heard a shriek behind her and turned around to find Lizzy gaping at the two of them like they were a pair of crazed animals. Which, if Molly was honest, they kind of were.
“Molly! What the hell? Who is this?” Lizzy said, shining the wimpy beam of her keychain flashlight at Graham. He didn’t even flinch when the light flashed in his eyes, and he stayed exactly where he was, pressed against Molly, his knee between her thighs and rubbing right up against her hot, wet core.
“Hi. I’m Graham. I’m the park ranger for Caballo Lake,” he said, balancing on one hand so he could lift the other to Lizzy in greeting. She gave a confused wave back and then turned back to Molly.
“Molly? Could I talk to you for a second?” she said, motioning for Molly to extricate herself from Graham’s embrace and follow her inside the tent. Lizzy didn’t wait for Molly, but instead stepped back through the nylon fabric and half-zipped it closed.
“Now might be a good time to tell her,” Graham said as he sat up so Molly could roll out from underneath him.
“Tell her what?” Molly said, standing up and fixing her jacket so it didn’t look quite so much like Graham had had his hand all the way up it, feeling the tips of her breasts as he kissed her senseless. Even though that’s exactly what he’d been doing.
“Tell her you’re a werebear. She already looks pretty shocked, so maybe this is the perfect time to layer another revelation on top of it all. That way, she only has to freak out once, and then you two can go back to being best friends,” Graham said, shrugging like this was the most sensible of solutions.
Molly was about to open her mouth and tell him exactly how stupid his plan was when she stopped. It did actually make a perverse kind of sense, actually. Lizzy was probably so gobsmacked that Molly was engaging in something she usually only wrote about that the bear thing might not seem like quite as much of a big deal. And she did really want to tell her. If this night had taught her anything, other than that Graham Hendricks was an amazing kisser, it was that Molly needed to come clean with Lizzy. She needed to stop hiding and start being proud of who she was and all the baggage it came with, and she could start now.
“Okay. Good idea,” she told Graham, turning around and starting toward the tent.
“Wait!” Graham called, causing Molly to turn around with a raised eyebrow. She’d been hoping he’d do that.
“Do you…do you want me to wait? For you, I mean? Or should I…” he said, trailing off and looking a little bit like an adorably lost bear cub.
“Don’t wait for me,” Molly said, and when she saw Graham’s face immediately fall, she added, “I’ll come to you. I’ll follow your scent.”
Graham heaved a huge sigh of relief that was probably audible all the way over the mountains. “Okay. Cool. See you in a bit.”
---
It turned out that it was not nearly as hard as Molly thought it would be to explain to her best friend that there was a reason beyond a tendency towards being a homebody that made Molly hate the outdoors. Like Graham had suggested, Lizzy was so floored at finding her best friend making out with a random stranger on a rock at three in the morning in the middle of nowhere that adding a confession about being a shifter to the pile caused only a little more shock than the first situation had elicited.
“Oh…kay,” Lizzy said when Molly had finished her explanation. “I just don’t get why you never told me. I mean, this is big, Moll. Like, really big. There’s a whole part of you that I don’t even know. And I never would have suggested we take this trip if I knew what stress it would cause you. It was supposed to be a stress reduction weekend, not a stress-increasing one!” Lizzy said, flopping onto her back on the tent and covering her face with her hands.
Molly leaned over and pried her friend’s palms from her face. “Don’t beat yourself up. I’m the one who wasn’t honest. I just…didn’t know how to tell you. Being a werebear is a part of me, but it’s a part I have a lot of trouble with. I should probably look into going to therapy,” Molly said, sliding down until she was shoulder to shoulder next to Lizzy on the tent floor.
“At least now I know what your secret to success with those shifter books was,” Lizzy said. Molly’s werewolf series had been on the top-10 best-rated shifter romances on BookRiot and Goodreads for the last five years. Her vampire books were more popular, but secretly, she was much prouder of the former accolade.
�
�And what’s what?” Molly asked, turning to Lizzy.
Lizzy scoffed. “Duh! You had first-hand experience! No wonder the angst felt so palpable!”
“Had to channel it somehow,” Molly quipped.
“So…will you join a clan? Find friends like you?” Lizzy turned and asked, and Molly detected a hint of nerves in her best friend’s voice. But why would Lizzy be nervous about Molly joining a clan? Unless…unless she was worried that meant she and Molly wouldn’t be a unit anymore.
Turning onto her side and propping her head on her hand, Molly looked straight into her friend’s eyes and, with the most serious tone she could muster at this late/early hour, said, “Even if I do join a clan, we’ll always be best friends. We’ve been through thick and thin, Liz, and just because I occasionally hang out with bears doesn’t mean I’m not still going to meet you for margaritas so we can bitch about our characters together. And who knows,” Molly said, rolling her eyes to the tent’s ceiling, “Maybe we can even try this again sometime once I’m a little more used to the smell of bear and don’t immediately feel like shifting and become a scary monster.”
“You’re not a scary monster, Moll. Not even when you’re a bear,” Lizzy said, laughing and rolling over until her head was resting against Molly’s arm.
“Thanks,” Molly whispered, leaning down to kiss Lizzy’s forehead. She nearly took a chunk out of Lizzy’s head, however, when just a Molly was leaning down, Lizzy popped up, her eyes wide.
“Wait, what happened to Bear Boy?” she asked, sitting up and crawling to the front of the tent. She unzipped the flap and looked out, but even in the light afforded by early dawn, she couldn’t see anything.
“Oh, he’s back at his ranger hut. I told him I’d meet him there later,” Molly said, waving her hand away as if she arranged for sexy liaisons with werebear park rangers every day of the week.
“Oh my god! Then you have to go!” Lizzy said, tugging Molly’s foot. “You have to! I mean, I know it was dark and everything, but he looked like a total hottie, and before I interrupted, things looked pretty hot and heavy.”
“They were,” Molly said, her eyes momentarily glazing over as she imagined the way Graham’s body on hers had made her feel like she was covered in live wires.
“Then go! Go to him, now!” Lizzy said, jumping up and down on her knees with excitement.
“But I can’t abandon you!” Molly said, sitting up and staring at her friend. “I’ve just unloaded a life-altering confession on you. I can’t just up and leave so I can go hook up with some guy. Besides, you have all those plans for us. We’re supposed to be hiking in like an hour. You even laminated your maps,” Molly said, emphasizing that last part as if that, more than anything else, showed Lizzy’s enthusiasm for the trip.
“He didn’t look like just some guy. You wouldn’t have kissed him if he were just some guy,” Lizzy countered.
“That’s true…” Molly conceded.
“And besides, you were thinking of ditching this trip anyway. I’d much rather be able to spread out in this big tent with my Kindle while you go hook up with Ranger McHotPants, and then we can drive home later in the day and get margaritas and nachos and watch movies. That sounds more restorative than a hike would’ve been, anyway,” Lizzy said, shrugging.
“You sure?” Molly said, crossing her legs and eyeing Lizzy for any sign that she was lying. She didn’t seem to be; her nostrils always flared when she lied, and right now they looked very normal, for nostrils.
“Yup. Positive. Good hook up with your real boyfriend so I can hang out with my book boyfriend,” Lizzy said, shooing Molly from the tent.
“He’s not my boyfriend! I’ve only just met him!” Molly said as she climbed through the flap.
Lizzy stuck her head out. “He might be, by the time you’re back.”
Molly sighed. “God, I hope so.”
“Good luck! Be safe!” Lizzy shouted as Molly started walking down the path that led to the woods, the scent of Graham filling her nostrils with its delicious musk. Fuck, he smelled good.
Chapter 5
No sooner had Graham opened his door than Molly was all over him. Her hands were in his hair, her lips on his, her legs wrapping around his body. Stumbling back into the room, Graham barely missed running into his kitchen table, and he didn’t miss Fergus’ bark of alarm as he fell back onto the bed, narrowly missing the dog’s tail as Fergus jumped off the bed to seek safety on the ground.
“Hi,” Molly breathed in Graham’s ear as she slid her hands under his t-shirt, running her fingers through the hair that covered his chest and tapered down to his groin. Graham just growled in response, too lost in the feel of her fingers on his skin to even think about forming words.
Molly didn’t seem to mind, though she kept talking as she traced her hands around to Graham’s back, running her index finger down the length of his spine and back up in a way that made his cock ache with need. “God, you have no idea how much I want you, Graham. I would have fucked you on that rock if Lizzy hadn’t interrupted. I would have let every animal instinct I have reign free just for the feel of you inside me. Do you want to be inside me, Graham?” she whispered in his ear, biting the lobe and then running her tongue along the skin just below it.
All Graham could do was nod into Molly’s neck, biting softly at her pulse and making her back arch up into him and her pelvis press against his cock, resulting in an erection beyond any he’d ever had before. But then again, he’d never been with a woman quite like Molly before.
As if to further this point, Molly shoved Graham off her chest, forcing him to lift himself onto his knees so she could wrench his shirt off his body. As the fabric flew through the air, Molly dove into Graham, covering him with kisses and bites that left him unable to see anything but the gorgeous vixen below him. And when she shoved him backward, and his back bounced against the bed, Graham didn’t put up any kind of fight. He liked how wild and assertive Molly was. It was the bear in her coming out and taking over, and he liked it. He liked it a lot.
“These are coming off now,” Molly said, hooking her fingers under the waistband of Graham’s sweatpants and pulling them down, taking his boxers with them. The feel of the air as it hit his cock was electric, but it was quickly surpassed by the incandescently blissful sensation of Molly’s tongue as she ran it up and down her shaft. “Mm, you taste good,” she muttered as she sucked as much of him as she could fit into her mouth, moaning when his head hit the back of her throat. He jerked upward, nearly coming right there and then.
But then Molly leaned back and unzipped the jacket Graham realized she hadn’t taken off yet, followed by her shirt and leggings, and Graham was very happy he hadn’t come in her mouth after all, because it allowed him to spend vital energy scooping Molly into his arms and depositing her on his lap, where he proceeded to lavish her beautiful tip-tilted breasts with the attention they so desperately deserved.
“Fuck, Graham, keep going,” Molly uttered, her beautiful swanlike neck tilting back as Graham moved his mouth from one breast to the other. Graham dragged his legs lower, bending Molly back as he dropped kisses under her breasts and all down her belly, before stopping at the curly mass of dark hair between her thighs.
“Why the hell did you stop?” Molly said, suddenly jerking back upright and glaring down at him. That expression, that murderous gaze that was all werebear, was why Graham had stopped.
Laying Molly down, Graham planted his mouth between her thighs and lapped up the thick sweetness there, running his tongue all the way along Molly’s lips until she was begging him to pay attention to her clit. Which Graham did, bringing his mouth to the small, sensitive nub and licking it in languorous circles until he could feel Molly beginning to tense, her breath quickening as the orgasm began to build inside her. But, as much as Graham wanted to watch her fall apart right then and there, he needed her first orgasm with him to be while he was inside her. Call him old-fashioned, but that was just how he did things.
&nb
sp; “I’m going to push in you, now, okay?” Graham asked the first words he’d uttered since Molly had knocked on the door of his hut what seemed like hours ago. He saw her nod vigorously; her pupils so dilated her eyes looked black in the low light of the room. Taking out a condom from the drawer of his bedside table, Graham quickly sheathed himself and pushed in, and dear God in heaven, she felt perfect.
Molly was a perfect fit, hugging him in all the right places, surrounding his cock with her warm wetness. She mewled beneath him as he rode her, pumping in and out as he leaned down and captured her lips in a searing kiss that left them both breathless. Graham couldn’t last much longer, but he wouldn’t let himself come until he knew Molly was going to be right there with him, so, balancing on one forearm, he brought his other hand down between them and rubbed Molly right where she needed it.
“Yes, yes, right there, yes, Graham,” she whispered, her voice breaking on every word. Graham felt her heart practically hammering in tune with his, and he knew the second to thrust deep inside her, to bury himself completely to the hilt, filling up every inch of her and sending her into waves of pleasure so hot and heavy he wasn’t sure either of them would ever come down.
But eventually, they did, lying in a tangled heap of limbs and hair on Graham’s bed and watching the sunrise through the window just across from his bed. Graham’s face was buried in Molly’s sweet, coconut-scented hair, and he never wanted to leave, never wanted to move again unless this woman was beside him.
“Graham?” she whispered, turning around to face him.
“Mm?” he muttered, his face still buried in her locks.
“I’m not sure I’m ready for a clan in a traditional sense, but if you wouldn’t mind being my…I don’t know, mate, I guess? I think I’d really like it,” she said.
The Baby Shift- New Mexico Page 3
