Hot Bear Summer, Part Three
Julia’s heart pounded wildly as she pulled into the parking lot near Andy’s kayak rental store. She knew he closed at five p.m., and didn’t like to hang around long, so she hoped she hadn’t missed him. After she’d closed her donut shop earlier that afternoon, she’d cleaned up and prepped for the next day as quickly as possible, hoping she’d make it over to the kayak store before Andy left. She knew it probably wouldn’t have been that hard to find out where he lived, but she didn’t want to show up at his front door. That felt too forward. Sure, they’d slept together, but showing up at his house unannounced still felt like such an intimate, serious step.
Julia didn’t want to seem like she was overstepping her bounds, although she wasn’t sure what her bounds actually were. She had pushed him away in such a hurry the day before that she didn’t know if he would think she wasn’t worth his trouble.
She hoped that wasn’t the case. There had been a chemistry between them unlike anything she’d ever felt before, and she suddenly found herself very much wanting a boyfriend. Just a day earlier, she would have sworn up and down that she was done with men. But Andy struck her as different. Even though she’d only just met him, she could feel deep in her bones that he was a man unlike any other—a man’s man, a man she could trust to take care of her and her heart.
If only she hadn’t run him off already.
She saw a lone red pickup truck parked in front of the kayak store, and, while she didn’t actually know yet what vehicle Andy drove, she would have been willing to hazard a guess that the truck was his. He was still here, and he was alone.
Her heart pounded even harder as she parked her own vehicle, then grabbed the white bakery box of donuts from her passenger seat and marched toward the kayak store before she could change her mind.
When she walked through the front door of his store and saw him standing there, leaning over the counter with afternoon sunlight splashed across his tanned skin, making his face and sculpted biceps seem to glow, she nearly turned around and ran out again.
He was too perfect. He couldn’t be real. She should just leave now and cut her losses while she still could, before her heart had completely shattered.
But then, he smiled at her, the corners of his eyes crinkling up adorably. “Hey,” he said, his voice husky and laced with unmistakable desire. “I was hoping you’d come.”
She blinked at him, trying to process what he’d just said. He wanted her here! He hadn’t completely written her off after she’d kicked him out of her store.
When she didn’t say anything for a few moments, he gestured toward the box. “Strawberry donuts?”
She raised an eyebrow, a bit surprised. “As a matter of fact, yes. How’d you know?”
He shrugged. “I could smell them.”
Julia frowned down at the box. She couldn’t really smell the donuts, and she was holding the box right under her face. Then again, maybe it was because she spent so much time around donut smells that she had become sort of immune, not even noticing it anymore. Still, Andy had an excellent sense of smell. Suddenly, she hoped she smelled okay. She’d been working hard all day, and hadn’t taken a shower before coming over to the store.
Forcing away the worry, she swallowed hard and held out the donut box. “Peace offering?”
His smiled again. “Were we at war?”
“I…I honestly don’t know. I kind of acted like a jerk back at the store yesterday, kicking you out so quickly the way I did after we, um, after we, uh…”
“Made love? Had sex? Banged in your backroom?” he looked amused by her inability to say the words.
She blushed. “Yeah. That. Anyway, I feel really badly. I know you probably think I’m horrible for being so worried about what Emily thinks. It’s not that I’m ashamed of you. Please don’t think that! It’s just that Emily can be so persistent, and I didn’t have the energy to try to explain to her what’s going on between you and I.” Julia paused and took a deep breath. “What is going on between us?”
She held her breath, waiting for Andy to tell her that he had no interest in pursuing anything with a woman who would ask him to run away before she was caught with him.
But Andy only smiled wider. “What would you like to be going on between us?"
Julia chewed her lower lip. “Honestly? I’m not sure. I hadn’t planned on a relationship with anyone anytime soon. I sort of came here to get away from drama, and relationships tend to be drama.”
Andy nodded slowly. “They can be. But I’m not a particularly dramatic person.”
Julia waited for him to say more, but he only looked at her, his intense eyes gazing at her as though he was trying to see into her very soul. Finally, she ventured to ask. “Do you want a relationship?”
Her heart pounded as she waited for him to answer. She didn’t know what she wanted him to say. If he said he wasn’t interested in a relationship, then she could go back to the donut shop and chalk all of this up to a big, stupid mistake. She’d feel foolish, and she knew her heart would be a bit broken even though she had just met Andy and had no claim on his heart. But at least she wouldn’t be diving into a relationship right away, which she’d promised herself she wouldn’t do.
But if he did want a relationship?
She didn’t think she had the strength to say no. She didn’t want to say no. She desperately wanted him to want her, and to once again feel his arms around her, possessive and strong like they’d been in the back room of her shop the day before. Was it so wrong to want a man to care for her and protect her?
She only had to wait a few seconds for Andy to start speaking, but it felt like an eternity. And even then, it took a moment for her to hear the words coming out of his mouth over the pounding of her heartbeat.
“I’ll be honest with you,” he said in a low voice. “I want a relationship with you. I want everything with you. I knew the moment I saw you that you were the one for me.”
“But?” Julia asked, already sensing that there was a catch to all this. And why wouldn’t there be? Things that were too good to be true usually were.
“But there’s a big part of me you should know about before you make any kind of commitment to me.”
Julia’s heart fell. Here it came. There was something wrong with him, something that no other woman had been able to look past. That’s why he was still single even though from the outside he looked like such a great catch. Emily had tried to warn her, hadn’t she? Why hadn’t she listened before sleeping with him?
“Julia?” Andy asked. “Does that sound okay?”
Julia had no idea what he’d just asked. “Sorry, my mind wandered off there for a moment. Does what sound okay?”
Andy probably thought she was a jerk for not paying attention to him in the middle of a serious conversation about their potential for a future together, but if he was annoyed with her, he didn’t show it. Instead, he smiled kindly and said.
“I have something I need to show you. Would you be willing to go for a walk with me into the woods beyond the river? I know that sounds creepy, but I promise I’m not a serial killer who’s going to harm you as soon as I get you away from civilization.”
Julia snorted. “Well, as long as you promise.”
He gave a sheepish shrug. “I know you don’t necessarily have any reason to believe me. All I can do is ask you to trust me and hope that you do.”
Julia took a deep breath. “I’ll trust you. After all, you trusted me yesterday when I asked you to leave the store in a rush.”
She thought, but didn’t add aloud, that she would have trusted him regardless. She’d never been a big believer in gut feelings, but she couldn’t deny that something deep inside her bones was telling her that she could trust Andy. She’d decided to trust that something.
And so, she followed Andy as he walked toward the forest, the box of strawberry donuts still in his grasp. Hopefully, Emily had been wrong about needing to stay away from Andy.
Julia couldn’t stay away. Her heart wouldn’t let her, and she followed him forward toward what she hoped was her future. Their future.
* * *
Andy remained silent as he walked deeper into the forest. He had never been good at small talk, and he didn’t know what he could possibly say to prepare Julia for what he was about to show her.
He had never shown any full human his inner bear before, and he couldn’t help feeling nervous. How would Julia react? He was taking a big risk, but it was a risk he had to take.
Julia was his fated lifemate.
He had felt the lifemate bond forming deep within him when they mated. The telltale searing heat in his core had confirmed for him what his inner bear had been trying to tell him since the first time he’d laid eyes on Julia: she was destined for him.
But how would she feel about this destiny? Would she be accepting of the fact that shifters existed? Would she be willing to tie her life to the life of a shifter, to be his for always?
He knew he was asking a lot of her, and that he couldn’t expect her to embrace this destiny just because he did. All he could do was be honest with her, and hope that, at the very least, she didn’t run off and tell the police that a bear shifter was hidden away right in the middle of Wood Canyon.
After about twenty minutes of silent walking, they reached the spot he’d been heading for: a beautiful green meadow in the middle of a dense portion of the forest. He loved this spot, with its carpet-soft grass cover and the occasional pop of color from wildflowers spread across the meadow.
The place was close enough to town that he knew it was a bit of a risk to shift here. But the meadow was secluded enough that chances were good no one else would see him, and he didn’t want to ask Julia to keep walking even deeper into the forest. The deeper into the forest he went, the more like a crazed serial killer he probably seemed to her. He didn’t want her to feel unsafe.
“Wow,” Julia said, breaking the silence between them. “This place is gorgeous.”
Andy nodded. “It’s one of my favorite spots. I love to come out here on afternoons when the kayak store is closed and just lie in the grass, looking up at the sky. It’s so peaceful.”
Julia looked dreamily up at the sky, but her face took on a wary expression when she looked back down at him. “I doubt you brought me down here just to show me a pretty meadow, though. What is all this about?”
Andy took a deep breath. He’d been debating the best way to explain things, and finally decided that the best was to give Julia the simplest explanation possible and then, if she didn’t run away at that, to just show her his inner bear. Nothing would make the concept of bear shifters clearer to her than actually seeing his inner bear come out to play.
“I brought you out here because I need to show you a part of me that makes me different from other men on a fundamental level.”
Julia frowned slightly. “Okay,” she said, the wariness in her eyes growing stronger.
Andy felt like he was quickly losing her. She was going to start thinking he was some mentally unstable weirdo if he didn’t make things very clear, very fast. With a silent prayer to the gods of destiny that this would work out since Julia was fated for him, he dove forward with his explanation.
“Have you ever heard of bear shifters?” he asked.
Julia furrowed her brow and shook her head. “No idea what you’re talking about.”
Andy’s stomach clenched. This wasn’t going to be easy. “Okay, well, a bear shifter is a person who has the ability to shift into a bear at will, then back into human form.”
Julia blinked a few times, looking at him as though he’d been speaking Greek and she had no idea what he’d just said. He waited for her to say something, anything, to give him an indication of whether she now thought he had gone completely off the rails, but she remained silent. After several long moments of her just staring at him, Andy decided to forge ahead.
“I know it probably sounds like some sort of fairytale nonsense, but it’s true. Bear shifters—people who can change into bears and back into humans again—really do exist, and I’m one of them.”
Julia narrowed her eyes at him. “Is this supposed to be some kind of joke? Did you bring me out here to make fun of me? Because if you think you can make a fool of me as some sort of payback for the way I treated you yesterday, then—”
“No!” Andy interrupted. “It’s not a joke, and I’m not making fun of you. You don’t owe me anything for yesterday. You’ve already apologized, and, to be honest, I get it. I understand what it’s like to feel like you always have to explain yourself to people, and to just not want to have to do that for once.”
Julia’s eyes remained narrow. “Okay, then. What is this all about?”
“It’s about the truth. I’m a bear shifter. I know it sounds outlandish, but I can prove it. I brought you all the way out here to tell you this so that I can shift and show you my inner bear. The bottom line is, I’m wild about you. I want a relationship with you. I want forever with you. But before I ask you to go on that journey with me, I need to be honest with you about who I am. I need you to see that I have an inner beast and be okay with that.”
Julia didn’t reply, and Andy wanted to roar with frustration. He felt he was handling this poorly, but what was he supposed to do? Was there a better way to tell someone you were part bear than to just come out and say it?
“Look, can I just show you what I mean?” he pleaded.
She hesitated another moment, but then nodded. “Fine. Show me.”
He knew she probably didn’t expect him to be able to actually change into a bear. She still thought he was either crazy or mocking her.
Only one way to change her mind on that.
“I’m going to take off my clothes,” he said, turning around as he spoke so that his back was to her as he started to strip. "It’s because if I leave my clothes on when I shift, the force of shifting will tear my clothes to shreds and ruin them.”
She didn’t say anything, and since he was facing away from her, he couldn’t even use the expression on her face to gauge how she might feel. His heart hammered in his chest, every nerve in his body on edge. This was it. This was the moment he showed his lifemate who he really was, and found out whether she was willing to agree to forever with a beast of a man.
“Okay, I’m going to shift now,” he told her. “There’s going to be a loud pop and a rush of power, kind of like a rush of wind. Just be prepared and maybe step back a few yards, or it could knock you over.”
She didn’t reply, so Andy took a deep breath, hoped for the best, and began to shift.
Letting his inner bear take over felt like a giant relief. The tenseness he felt faded into pure energy and power as he let go and allowed his body to begin the transformation that was second nature to him. His limbs grew longer and his muscles thickened. His head morphed into the shape of a bear, and his teeth and nails grew longer and razor sharp. His skin thickened and then became covered with thick, brown grizzly fur.
Andy closed his eyes as the power of shifting radiated through his body, waiting until every last part of him had turned into a bear and the buzzing energy he felt mellowed before opening his eyes again. He stood on all fours, fully bear, but he was still him. He could still think and understand the way he did in his human form, even though he couldn’t speak while in bear form.
When he turned around and saw Julia’s face, he would know how she felt. He would see either admiration or disgust there, and he feared it would be the latter.
But delaying the moment of truth wasn’t going to make it any easier. Taking a deep breath to fill his bear lungs with air, he turned around and raised his grizzly gaze to meet Julia’s eyes.
She stared at him, her mouth agape, as though frozen in a moment of pure shock. For a few terrible moments, he thought that she was going to turn and run as soon as she regained her senses.
But then, a smile slowly spread across her face.
“Wow,” she said softly, her voice full of wonder. “You weren’t kidding.”
No, Andy thought, What kind of jerk would kid about something like this?
But then, he realized that she might think he was a jerk. He’d acted like one the first time they met, after all. And even though she was obviously attracted to him, since she’d slept with him, that attraction might have been tempered by her belief that he wasn’t a genuinely nice guy.
He hoped she would give him a chance to change that belief.
She walked toward him slowly, almost reverently.
“May I?” she asked, stretching out her hand. He nodded his giant grizzly head, and she reached further so she could stroke the top of it. He didn’t smell any fear on her, which he took as a very good sign. She knew it was him inside the fearsome grizzly body, and she trusted him not to tear her to shreds.
She slowly walked around him, taking in his bear form, stroking the fur on his neck and back. When she stood in front of him again, her smile had only widened.
“I won’t pretend to understand how this works, but I can’t deny that it’s real. And it’s amazing. I’m a little bit in shock, but I think you’re incredible.”
Andy let out a little grunt, then backed away so he could shift back without knocking her over from the power of his shift. He wanted to talk to her, so he needed to be back in human form.
A rush of power overtook him again as his body morphed back into human form. He kept his back to her as he shifted, since he was going to be completely naked again. At least the backside was a bit more modest than the front side.
But as he reached for his clothes to put them back on, he felt her hand on his bare back.
“Don’t,” she said in a low voice. “Don’t get dressed. You’ll only have to take everything off again.”
His heart thundered as he turned to face her. Was she implying what he thought she was?
The moment his eyes fell on her, he went instantly hard. She was definitely implying what he’d thought.
She had already unbuttoned her work blouse and shrugged it off, leaving her standing in front of him in a bra and her fitted work pants. He cleared his throat, trying to find words. He could speak now that he was in human form, and yet he still found himself speechless.
She made him speechless. Her beauty undid him, and all he wanted was to throw her down on that soft meadow grass and make love to her until the afternoon sunshine faded into moonlight.
But he held back, not wanting to scare her off, not wanting to overstep. He’d just showed her that shifters existed. Was she in shock? Was she really in a frame of mind to be making decisions about sleeping with him.
“Stop looking at me like that,” she said, stepping up to him and pressing her soft, curvy body against his hard, muscular one.
“Like what?” he rasped out.
“Like you’re afraid I’m going to break if you touch me. I’m not going to fall apart just because I learned you have a bear within you, and I think that deep down you know that. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have shown me who you really are.”
“I…I wanted to hope…” he said.
“Your hopes have been fulfilled,” she said. “I’m not falling apart. In fact, I want you more than ever now that I know what a special, unique man you truly are. I have a lot of questions about how it all works, yes. But those can wait. First, I want to make love to you, my bear.”
With that she took his hand and gently tugged him down onto the grass with her.
He felt like he was seeing stars as he finally gave in and lay beside her, moving his mouth to hers to kiss her deeply, hungrily. This was all he’d ever wanted and more. He could hardly believe he’d found her, his lifemate. He’d given up hope, thinking he’d always be alone. And then, suddenly, there she was. His woman, beautiful and vibrant and completely unafraid of his inner bear.
Destiny had known what it was doing after all.
* * *
Julia moaned as Andy pulled off her underwear, the last bit of clothing that remained between them. She’d run through so many scenarios of what might happen when she came to talk to Andy, her strawberry donuts in tow, but none of them had come close to this: lying naked with him in a blanket of soft meadow grass, after he’d just revealed he hid a bear within him. She could not have predicted this in a million years, but she’d never been happier.
She hadn’t known that bear shifters existed, but she’d known deep down that Andy was different somehow. She could tell he’d worried that his differences would scare her off, but rather, they’d drawn her in. How could she not love a bear of a man? He would be loyal, and true. He was obviously wild for her. He was a man’s man, and he would not fear standing up for her.
He was everything she wanted in a partner, and she could hardly believe that he was drawn to her! She wasn’t going to complain though. Especially not when he was currently moving his naked body over her naked body, his tongue finding her hard nipples and drawing tantalizing circles around them. She shuddered, then closed her eyes and let the sheer ecstasy of the moment wash over her.
So many things made sense now that she’d learned he was part bear. His sense of smell for one thing, but also how large and muscular he was. And her favorite large part of him, his gigantic dick, currently hovered near her dripping wet entrance, rock hard and ready to slide into her.
He must have known how badly she wanted him to slide into her. If how wet she was hadn’t given her away, her moans surely would have. But he took his time, only pressing the tip of his erection against her clit as he continued to kiss her. He moved from her nipples to her neck, kissing her softly, then with more fervor. He nibbled at her ear, and she couldn’t keep another moan from escaping.
“Stop playing!” she gasped out. “I need you inside me, now.”
He chuckled, a low, husky laugh. “Someone’s impatient.”
“Well, can you blame me when—”
He slammed into her before she could finish her sentence, filling her completely. She gasped, the sheer electricity of him coursing through every fiber of her being.
“Luckily for you,” he said, his eyes going dark and feral as she turned to meet his gaze, “I’m feeling a little impatient myself.”
“Andy,” she breathed, her words a cross between a whimper and a plea. He knew exactly what she wanted.
He began to move in her, sliding back and forth, faster and faster. His eyes never left hers. Ordinarily, she closed her eyes during sex. But this time, she could not look away. She kept her eyes on his as his movement in her sped up, making the heat and pressure within her grow to an impossible crescendo. Her whole body thrummed with the pleasure of it, and her mouth opened in a silent “oh!” as it all finally became too much to bear.
She gave in, letting the waves of release crash over her. She kept her gaze on him as he smiled down at her, his eyes now appearing completely black.
“Mine,” he said. “You’re mine.”
And then, he closed his eyes and roared as his release came, a roar that seemed to shake the trees that bordered the meadow. Julia finally closed her eyes as he pulsed into her, letting herself be swept away by the pure pleasure of their shared release.
A delicious eternity later, when her heartrate and breathing had returned mostly to normal, she lay naked in the grass beside Andy, feeling sated and satisfied as he slipped his arm around her in a familiar, possessive way. He was no longer inside her, but she still felt like he was a part of her. She felt like he’d always be a part of her. It didn’t matter that they’d only recently met. She knew in her bones that they were meant for each other, and that they’d have a lifetime to get to know each other better.
He bopped her nose and smiled, his gaze warm and adoring. “How are you?” he asked, and she could tell he genuinely cared about the answer.
She snuggled closer to him. “Never been better.”
“Good,” he said. “I hope you’re about to become even better, because I have one last big thing to tell you.”
She leaned her head back so she could look into his eyes, her own eyes widening a little. “Bigger than the fact that you can turn into a bear?”
“I guess that depends on how you look at things,” he hedged. “Although, it’s actually somewhat related to the fact that I’m a bear shifter.”
“Okay…” Julia said slowly. She couldn’t imagine anything being more shocking than learning that bear shifters existed, so she hoped this was just more information about shifters, and not another new, shocking revelation. She loved that Andy was a bear, but a girl could only handle having her worldview altered so many times in one day, after all!
Andy smiled. “Relax. It’s not a bad thing. Just a big thing. You see, we bear shifters have a thing we call lifemates. Basically, we believe that each of us are destined from the moment we’re born for a specific person, and that person is our lifemate. We’re destined to find them and fall in love with them, and then be theirs for the rest of our lives.”
Julia frowned. “So…kind of like a soulmate?”
“Kind of. But it’s deeper than that. The first time you make love to your fated lifemate, an unbreakable bond is formed—the lifemate bond. You feel it as a deep, searing heat in your core. Once that bond is made, it’s there for life. It tunes you in to your lifemate, letting you sense when they’re near or when they might be in danger. It keeps you connected to them at all times.”
Julia’s eyes widened. “Seriously? I felt something like that when we made love. I felt so hot all over, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I thought it was just because I was so attracted to you, but you’re telling me it was actually the lifemate bond forming?”
Andy’s smile widened. “Yes! That’s the lifemate bond. I wasn’t sure whether someone without shifter blood could feel it, but I guess you can!”
“And that means we’re tied to each other for life?” Julia’s heart pounded. Was she ready for that kind of commitment? Even a few hours ago, she would have said no. But that had been before she’d seen how truly amazing Andy was. In the space of one afternoon, her world had been completely altered.
“I don’t know how it works for humans,” Andy said. “But for me, yes. I’m tied to you for life. You’re my lifemate, my everything. There will never be anyone else for me. Whether you want me or not, my heart is always yours. If you walk away from this, I’ll understand. I know it’s a lot to take on. But I’ll never walk away. I’m yours, forever and always.”
Julia saw the vulnerability in his eyes, and her heart tightened in her chest. “Oh, Andy. I want you. I know most would think I’m crazy, but I knew from the start there was something different about you. I can’t think of anything more exciting than spending a lifetime with you, my bear shifter.”
Mine! she thought giddily. He’s my bear shifter.
Andy’s eyes glistened suspiciously, but no actual tears spilled over. He shook his head in wonder, then leaned in and gently kissed her forehead. “I’m the luckiest man alive.”
Julia let herself melt into his embrace, feeling pretty lucky herself. She hadn’t come to Wood Canyon to find love, but she wasn’t going to turn down destiny’s gift of Andy.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Andy murmured into the top of her head.
“Hmm?” she asked.
“Just because you’re my lifemate,” he said in a husky voice, “Doesn’t mean I’m going to share my donuts with you.”
With that, he jumped up and ran over to where the box of strawberry donuts still sat untouched in the grass. He opened the box and started wolfing one down. Julia fell back on the grass laughing.
“If you don’t share, then I won’t make any more for you.”
Andy huffed very dramatically, but then brought the box over to her. “I’ll share,” he said in a low voice. “But only if you let me lick the frosting off your lips when you’re done eating.”
Julia felt a whoosh of pleasure run through her. “Deal.”
Andy handed her a donut, and she licked her lips sensually, batting her eyelashes at him as she did.
He groaned, and pushed the box of donuts aside. “Come here, you,” he said before she even had a chance to take a bite of her donut. “I want to smear that frosting all over you, not just on your lips. And then I’m going to lick it off very, very slowly.”
Julia giggled, and let Andy push her back down into the grass.
She could already tell that a lifetime with him would be full of fun and adventure, and the adventure was just getting started!
*** Thank you for reading! For the next Wood Canyon shifter short story adventure click here: Cozy Bear Autumn, Part One! ***