Protected By Her Bear: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance Standalone (BBW Romance, BBW Paranormal Romance, BBW Shifter Romance, Shifter Romance) (3 page)

III.

On top of that, he never spoke of himself. As the weeks turned to months, she discovered surprisingly little of him. He would talk at length about the forest, home, and life, but when she asked him about himself, his past, he either changed the subject or shut up entirely.

Tyler was not a man to be cornered and forced into an answer. When confronted, he met that force head-on and then left. The conversation would go the way he wanted it to, or it just ended. Period. Still, it wasn’t enough to make her want to leave.

Tyler treated her better than she’d ever been treated, and she felt confident she’d crack the code on his silence eventually. A man like him was worth the effort.

Kelly had lost track of time. The days bled together into a sort of natural bliss.

Tyler left early that morning to check on a section of the forest that had caught fire a week ago, leaving Kelly alone in the cabin. By now, she knew what animals roamed the forest, how they traveled and what attracted them.

Kelly didn’t fear anything in that forest anymore. So when she heard a scratching on the door, it was with a fearless heart that she unlocked and opened it.

Daniel looked up at her and grinned. Eyes wide, bloodshot, his teeth grinding audibly.

“I’ve missed you,” he whispered.

"No,” she said, shaking her head. “You can’t. Why.”

When he stepped forward, she stepped back. She should’ve slammed that door in his freakish face, but panic and reflex dictated her movement.

“You don’t call, you don’t write. What’s a man to think?”

Metal scraped wood as he dragged the axe behind him when he followed after her.

Kelly moved to keep the couch between them, but he just stepped over it.

“Go away,” she said. “You better leave now. When he gets home, he’ll kill you.”

“What are you talking about? I’m here, Kelly. I’m home.”

“Leave me alone!” she shrieked, backing away.

“All I wanted was to love you. Why don’t you love me, too?” Even as he asked, he raised his axe over his shoulder and swung it to decapitate her. Kelly ducked, the axe chopping into the wood of the wall.

Feet planted, Kelly charged, shouldering Daniel out of the way and ran.

“Not again, Kelly! Not this time,” he called behind her.

She didn’t need to look back to know the sound she heard was that of the axe coming free.

Legs pumping, Kelly burst out of the cabin, and slammed the door closed behind her to give Daniel something else he had to do to continue chasing her.

“TYLER!” she screamed with all the power in her lungs. The name of her savior echoed through the eerily silent forest. It was as though the animals and insects knew evil when they saw it, and hushed themselves lest Daniel know they existed.

She continued to run through the forest toward the burned section, all the while screaming Tyler’s name.

Behind her, Daniel was chewing the distance between them like a shark. His legs were longer, stronger. Daniel was a born killer, and she was his prey.

When she felt that familiar, shaking hand on her arm, she flailed again.

“You can’t fight it,” he said as he struggled to hang onto her. “We were meant to be together, Kelly!”

“Get off of me! Tyler! Help!”

Tears stung her eyes as she saw Daniel bring the axe up above his head. Those eyes were impossibly wide, his yellowed teeth dripping with saliva.

His hold on her arm was too tight, and she couldn’t get out of the way of the falling axe. Kelly closed her eyes and screamed.

IV.

A bear’s roar drowned her out, and suddenly Daniel’s fingers tore free of her arm. The psycho shrieked as the largest bear Kelly had ever seen bit down on his shoulder and shook him.

With a great twist of that massive neck, the bear slammed Daniel against one tree, and then back against another.

Bones snapped. Rearing up on its hind legs, the bear threw Daniel to the ground, and then slammed both front paws down on his body before mauling him, and carrying the body into the forest and disappeared.

Kelly stood holding a tree, struggling to catch her breath. She was still there when the bear returned.

The giant head swung back and forth, and then focused on her. She knew she should’ve been afraid, but the way the bear looked at her, the softness in the eyes…

“No,” she said in a soft breath.

The bear reared up again, though this time not threatening. It shrank and slowly turned into Tyler, naked. His skin glistened with sweat and dust.

“I came as quickly as I could,” he said, keeping a distance from her.

It was clear in the way he held himself he didn’t want to frighten her.

“This whole time?” she asked, stepping toward him.

“I’m the Warden of this forest,” he said.

“I lived in that cabin to seclude myself. I had no time for love or any of the distraction it brings. I had a job to do. I’m a soldier and a protector. But that day you appeared in my doorstep, I’ve wanted to tell you. You woke something inside me.”

“I knew there was something, but I couldn’t have come near to guessing this.”

“You’re not afraid of me?”

Kelly stepped closer, and pressed her face against his hairy chest.

“I love you, Tyler. I’ve loved you from the beginning. All I could think was how to make you love me back.”

“Oh Kelly,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and holding her to him.

“I’ve always loved you. Bears like me aren’t complete until we find a mate, but I was afraid of what that would mean. I thought it would get in the way, but then I’d found mine in you. I need you. I need to make you my mate. Be with me, forever.”

“Yes,” she said, reaching up to hold his face in her hands.

“A thousand times, yes.”

Tyler lowered his head, bringing their lips together for the first time.

All of the ache Kelly had held in her body for these long months burst with sensation and she kissed him back with a starving passion.

As naked as he was, she felt his excitement against her body as he hardened. This was the man she was waiting all her life to find, so tossing all modesty to the wind, Kelly reached down and grabbed his firm manhood.

Tyler groaned, kissing her more deeply and pressed her back against a wide tree trunk.

Kelly broke the kiss long enough to lick her palm and then returned to his manhood, stroking him. The intense arousal that she’d sensed in him broke free.

With a growling moan, he reached down and tore open her shirt, exposing her breasts and body to him.

Like an animal, he looked down at her, drinking her in, and licked his lips.

“I’m going to claim you,” he said, and she knew it was a promise. “You’re mine.”

Kelly squeezed his stone-hard shaft and said, “And you’re mine. Take me.”

He growled again, the head of him throbbing in her hand with sexual power.

In one quick motion, he tore her pants open and pulled them down, free of her legs. Just like that she was naked.

Tyler pressed his body against hers as he kissed her, and she grabbed onto his shoulders with both hands.

“You’ve made me ready,” he said. “Now I’ll make you ready.”

“How thoughtful,” she said, not sure what to expect.

Tyler dropped to his knees, put her legs over his shoulders, and then stood. The way he lifted her was as though she was made of paper!

The rough bark of the tree pressed into her back as he buried his head into the soft, wet lips between her legs.

His tongue lapped at her dripping juices hungrily, sending shudders through her entire body.

Kelly moaned, running her tongue over dry lips, calling out her pleasure into the wilderness.

In moments, her clit was engorged, practically electrical with sensation as he ran his tongue in soft circles around it.

He held her high as if waving a flag, flicking his tongue over her clit, suckling it, and shaking his head vigorously back and forth until she came.

The cries of her orgasm echoed around her.

Finally, he lowered her and turned her around to face the tree.

“Yes,” she moaned, bending over. “Take me.”

Tyler positioned himself behind her, the swollen head of him pressing into her slit.

“You’re mine,” he said, and thrust into her.

“Yes! Oh yes, I’m yours!”

He grabbed her waist and thrust over and over. “We are one!”

Kelly held her hands against the tree trunk, head down, feeling him stretch her open as he made love to her. It had been far too long since she had been with a man, and she’d tightened up since then. She knew he could feel it.

He was so big that every slight quiver in his body she felt. He cried out wildly, as if finally able to release all of the energy pent up over the months.

“I’ve wanted this,” she moaned, pressing back against him.

“I’ve wanted you from the moment I saw you.”

“Your wonderful body woke the bear inside me,” he said, grunting with every thrust.

“I couldn’t even stand to be in the same room without feeling the need to rip your clothes off of you.”

Kelly moaned again, her fingers scratching against the bark of the tree. The strength of him, the power of his thrust filled her and brought her to orgasm again.

Pushing with her arms, she forced herself back against him to get him deeper and deeper as she came.

When she finished, he pulled away and turned her around. Before she could speak, his mouth was on hers, his tongue pushing its way into her mouth.

She welcomed it eagerly, holding onto him as he entered her once more.

They moaned together as they kissed, his hips dipping and rising.

In an effort, to open herself more to him, she lifted her leg to his waist, and he caught it with a hand behind her knee.

Her body more accessible, he adjusted his footing to getting deeper inside.

“Oh yeah, “she whispered, “That’s it. Just like that.”

“Yeah?” he asked, panting.

“Oh God, don’t stop.” Her fingernails dug into his skin, but she was unable to stop herself.

Inside, he seemed to grow even thicker than before, even more turned-on by her lust.

He grabbed her breast with his free hand, fondling it even as he thrust inside of her. Kelly tossed her head back, quickly overcome with the pleasure of it.

Deep inside, he began to pulse, each matched with a heavy groan. Knowing he was coming close to his climax, she hooked her foot against his body and tried to help him get deeper inside.

She matched each of his sounds with one of her own until finally he reached up and grabbed her hair at the base of her skull and pulled her head back.

Their bodies moved together in a primal dance as the force of his orgasm brought on another of her own. They cried out together, their voices filling the forest as he filled her with his seed.

His muscular body pressed against her own, pinning her to the tree as they panted. They were mates for life, his claiming her with his lust, and she with claws at his back.

The bond they had would never be broken.