ROMANCE: Awakened by the Alpha Bear (Werebear Fantasy Billionaire Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Alpha Male Bear Shapeshifter Paranormal Romance Short Stories)) (45 page)

Chapter
Five

Gotham jumped into the shower
and couldn’t keep his thoughts from wandering to Summer. He probably should
have had her stay with the females and not in his cabin. Not only was she
beautiful, but she had royal blood in her. If his parents had been alive, they
would have certainly tried to set up an arranged marriage. Gotham finished his
shower and quickly dried himself off, and when he opened the bathroom door, he
heard a faint gasp. He realized Summer had been coming to find the bathroom and
hadn’t heard the shower. Gotham rushed to cover his manhood, but the damage had
already been done. “Ah man, I’m sorry Summer. I should have remembered you were
out here.” Gotham said as his cheeks turned beet red with embarrassment.

Summer immediately responded
with a slight giggle as she said, “No worries, no harm, no foul. It’s not like
I’ve never seen a hot naked man before.” After the last word left her mouth,
she quickly wished she hadn’t said anything. Summer rushed to turn her head and
hide her pink cheeks, but he saw the blush. He was massive and beautiful, and
there was now a new image burned into her brain.

Gotham smiled to himself as he
held his towel and walked past Summer to the refrigerator for a beer. Summer
watched him as he walked by, and quickly averted her eyes as he caught her.
“Want a beer?” Gotham said with a smile.

“I would love one, thank you.”
Summer said and hoped he didn’t catch her staring at him. She counted to ten in
her head and tried to calm her raging hormones. Gotham grabbed a beer and
walked the few feet to where Summer was seated on the couch.

Gotham turned, grabbed another
beer, walked to his bedroom off the kitchen, and closed the door behind him.

Gotham dressed and returned to
the living room where Summer was sitting, but decided against wearing a shirt,
because he did enjoy the attention she was giving him.

“You know you can turn the T.V.
on if you want. You don’t need to sit in the dark.” Gotham said as he startled
Summer. Gotham turned the light on and sat next to Summer with barely a few
inches between the two of them. Her body was very aware of Gotham’s presence,
and she found it difficult to act normal.

Gotham reached out to the
coffee table, grabbed the remote, and handed it to Summer. Summer grabbed it
and let her soft fingers rub against his hand. Gotham could have gotten lost in
Summer’s dark eyes, before a loud thump on the door interrupted their moment together.

Gotham lunged for the front
door, but stopped just shy as he noticed blood flowed underneath the door.
Summer placed her hand on Gotham’s back as they cautiously opened the door. The
moment the door opened they were accosted with the head of Mikali the rogue
werewolf that disappeared from the lone wolf pack a couple of days ago. They
thought he had simply continued his nomad ways, but it seemed he had been
taken.

Gotham jumped the stairs to the
cabin and caught a scent. Someone tried to mask their smell with perfume, or
cologne. Gotham could still pick out a very distinct smell– pack. Gotham
reached down and grabbed Mikali’s head and rushed into the cabin. Summer
slammed the door and with a little bit of panic looked to Gotham for
reassurance.

“Who is that?” Summer shook as
she couldn’t look away from the blood dripping to the floor.

“Mikali, he’s been missing for
a few days.” Gotham looked sad and Summer moved closer picking up a familiar
scent.

“He smells like my old pack.”
Summer said.

“Someone tried to cover their
scent with doe pee, cologne, and something else I can quite detect so I would
know who did this, but I caught the scent. They didn’t realize I’m a tracker. I
have a very well trained nose. Grab a plastic bag from under the sink.” Gotham
said, pissed off as he pointed at the cabinet. Summer opened the cabinet and
grabbed a shopping bag, and handed it to Gotham. Gotham wrapped the severed
head in the bag and put it in the freezer. 

***

Slad and Kenya sat at the
council high table. Slad slammed his fist on the table as he said, “They better
not be able to track it back to us. If they do, you have no idea what could be
brought down from the leader council!” There was a council of elders even older
than they were that monitored the big things that went on across all packs in
North America. They would not be pleased by the blood spilled.

Kenya’s face was red with anger
as she said, “How the hell could they know? They have a rogue wolf I have
brought over to my side. The stray is getting very strong. She’s much stronger
than we could have anticipated. I think she’s a threat.

“Kenya, she is of your blood.
She is from the ancient royals just as you are. She made it perfectly clear she
wanted nothing to do with us when she left the pack.” Slad said as he
controlled his voice, and temper. Kenya nodded to Slad and stood to leave the
room. 

Kenya wouldn’t allow the silly
wolf to mess up the control they had over the pack. She knew what kind of chaos
one wolf could cause amongst the youth who wanted to get away. There was no way
she was going to let Summer live if she could help it. Hopefully, they were
freaked out enough from the death of one of their own to make a mistake. Once
they did, she would turn the pack against Summer and allow them to do the
killing of her precious niece for her. It would be better if there was not
blood on her paws. She smiled an evil grin as she walked down the hall, patting
herself on the back for how clever she was.

Chapter
Six

Gotham tossed and turned all
night as he thought of Mikali. The only reason he met Summer was simply because
he went looking for him. He had hoped to talk some sense into his brother, that
he was just as free with their group of loners as he was on his own in the
woods. He had found Summer instead. When the sun rose, Gotham made breakfast
and woke her up. She was more than happy to wake up to food.

“Thank you.” Summer said with
sleep still evident on her face.

“You’re welcome. Do you know
why they would smell like your old pack?” Gotham said as he sat down with his
stack of pancakes and sausage.

“Things started to change in my
pack. That’s why I left. There were blood feuds, and arranged marriages, and
everything I didn’t want. So, I left. Maybe I pissed some wolves off when I
took off and abandoned my responsibilities. The tribe had to let me go because
the Senior Council holds a lot of stock in those ceremonies. Majority rules,
but not everyone was happy about it.” Summer said in between bites of her food.

Gotham finished his plate and
washed his dish off in the sink. Just as he was about to grab Summer’s plate,
they were interrupted by a knock on the door. Alton stood on the door step. He
was disheveled and breathing hard.

“Why is Mikali’s blood on your
door step? I could smell him when I stepped into camp and it led me here where
I see this.  Is he here– hurt?” Alton said out of breath as he tried to look
around Gotham’s shoulders.

Gotham looked down at the blood
and realized he should have cleaned it up last night. It didn’t matter, but it
was something that felt disrespectful to his fallen brother. Gotham stepped
back to let his friend in.

“No, he’s not here. We found
his head on the porch last night. And I have it in my freezer until I can bury
it properly.” Gotham said.

“What happened to him?” Alton
said. He pushed his way inside and stood tall in the kitchen demanding an
answer.

Gotham shrugged his shoulders
as he turned to pour a cup of coffee. Alton plopped himself down on Gotham’s
couch and sat dumbfounded for a few moments.

“I just can’t understand who
would do this. He just wanted to get away. There isn’t anything wrong with
that.” Alton put his head in his hands and shook back and forth.

Gotham sat quietly for a moment
before he excused himself for a cigarette. Summer didn’t smoke, but caught the
hint he wanted her to come with him.

“I can smell death on him. He
was at least near Mikali’s body. I guess we’re going to have to figure out why
the hell one of our own would participate in the death of our brother.”  Summer
couldn’t help but think Mikali was just a message for her.

She hated to think her old pack
had convinced Alton to come to their side. Everyone knew that Kenya had a very
long reach, and it was possible her aunt wanted to rid of her for challenging
her view point. Summer showed weakness and defiance to the rest of the pack.
She would be made into an example.  Her mother was always nicer than her aunt.
She would have understood what was happening. When they went back in, Alton was
gone.

“He’s gone. He went through the
back door. We’ll go after him when the sun goes down. It’s possible he sensed
something was off when we went outside.” Gotham said

“Why are you letting him get a
head start?” Summer asked with obvious irritation.

“Because he’s just a pawn in
the game Summer. He will lead us to the person that had him do this and we will
know the answers we seek. I have a feeling we’re going to be heading to your
home turf.” Gotham said calmly.

Summer wondered how Gotham
could act so cool in the face of betrayal. She didn’t know how long Alton and
him had ran together with the loner pack. “What do you want to do until we
leave tonight?” Gotham said.

“I don’t know. How can you
remain so calm when you know we’re getting ready to end someone’s life?” Summer
said after she cleared her throat.

“I came from a mid-west pack
that was always in territory disputes with the Mexican wolf cartels. We didn’t
want their drugs or prostitutes in our territory, so we went to war many times.
I lost a lot of people I cared about– so I left. Now, we’re all here together
because it makes things easier, but other than you, I haven’t bonded with
anyone. But as I’m sure you’re already aware, that wasn’t a warning for me.”
Gotham said very casual.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know that
about you. I know it was a message for me. That’s why I’m so freaked out. I
think I might need to rest for a little while before we leave. I didn’t get
much sleep last night.” Summer said.

“You can take my bed. There is
no reason for you to sleep on the couch.” Gotham said.

“Thank you.” Summer said, and
turned to go lay down.

Gotham sat in the living room
and listened to the news for well over an hour. Gotham glanced at his watch and
realized they still had the better part of 6 hours until it was dark. Gotham
decided to get some rest also, but instead of curling up on the couch, he set
his alarm and crawled into bed with Summer. Summer squirmed when Gotham crawled
next to her. But instead of trying to touch her, he tucked his arm around her
and scooted her into his chest. Summer buried her head in his broad, muscular
chest and fell into a peaceful slumber. Gotham drifted off, and woke to his
alarm with Summer still on his chest. Summer stirred when the alarm went off,
and sat up grumbling about it.

“Time to get up. We have someone
to track.” Gotham casually said. It was a new feeling to wake up in the arms of
a man, but she liked it. Summer and Gotham made their way into the living room.

Chapter
Seven

Kenya laid her head down on her
pillow after a long stressful night. Just as Kenya closed her eyes she heard a
frantic tapping on her door. There was something to be said for a younger bitch
to threaten everything she’d worked so hard for. Power was all Kenya craved,
and since she couldn’t seduce the old and grumpy Slad, she just had to wait
around for her chance. Pissed off, she flung her covers off, stomped to the
door, and flung it open. With a gasp, Alton flew through the door, out of
breath, and with obvious wear, as if he’d been running for his life.

“They fucking know! They know!”
Alton said as he dropped onto the plush loveseat.

“Who knows? And how is that
possible?” Kenya said calmly.

“Gotham, he must have smelled
something. His demeanor towards me was completely different. You have to
protect me from them. This is all your fault.

Kenya could hear his heart
beating loudly. Kenya calmly walked to the water tank, and poured him a glass
of cold water.

“Here, drink this and relax. No
one is coming for you. You’re overreacting. “Kenya said confidently. 

Alton took a few long loud sips
before he leaned his head back on the love seat. Kenya reached down and started
to rub her fingers through his long dark hair.
Such a waste of a pretty face
and a sexy man
. That was the last thing Kenya thought before she ran her
fingers down Alton’s’s neck and snapped it. It was sad because they had been
intimate in the past and had kept in contact for years. He had betrayed his
friends for her, but he simply couldn’t live to implicate her because she would
be no match for Summer now that she knew what she was capable of.

Alton just stared absently into
the dark as Kenya leaned over the couch and grabbed the glass before it dropped
and broke. She positioned him where it looked like he was simply sitting and
waiting for her to get up.

“I’ll deal with you tomorrow.
I’m too tired for this shit.” Kenya told the corpse as she turned the hallway
light off and returned to her bed.

***

The journey wasn’t taking
nearly as long as Summer thought it would. Only another twenty minutes and they
would be on her old pack’s territory again. The closer they got to her former
pack, the more certain she was they had something to do with it. Her pace
slowed as she weighed the gravity of realizing her old tribe had not only let
her go with false promises but were more than likely planning to kill her if
the warning was any indication. She tried to let that sink in as she pictured
her friends and her mother’s sister sitting there wishing her well.

“Keep up, we’re almost there,
but if you keep reminiscing we won’t be there until dawn.” Gotham said
telepathically to Summer as he sprinted down the dirt road.   Summer took the
hint and caught up. And before they knew it, they were coming in on the
clearing of her former home. “Stop!” Summer whimpered as she telepathically
threw it out and hoped it met its mark. “We are right on the edge of our
territory.”

“What type of security is there
here,” Gotham stopped and sent his thoughts back.

 “There is always a patrol, but
at around this time, they will be on the west side of the property. But they’ll
be here in about ten minutes. We need to go directly to the council hall which
is the center of town. If Alton is here, you’ll smell him from there.”
Hopefully, her knowledge of the compound would help them if someone intended them
harm. She could lead him around and knew where the posts were.

Gotham slowly crept out of the
woods, keeping his stomach low to the ground, and tried to stay downwind of the
patrol. Summer followed, and then took the lead to direct him to the council
hall. Summer stopped directly in front of the council hall doors, and waited
for Gotham to get a scent.

“He’s here!” Summer followed
close behind him until he stopped directly in front of an ornate purple door.

“That’s Kenya’s door. We’re
kin, why would she want to kill me?” Summer thought back to Gotham. Gotham
pawed the doorknob which slowly opened. Summer followed Gotham in, waiting for
an attack to come at any time. Sitting on the couch staring at the ceiling was
Alton. He was dead– already dead. She killed him.

Without so much as a second
thought, Summer jumped into bed with Kenya and sunk teeth into her former
confidant and relative. She had killed another wolf and betrayed their kind.
Kenya was taken by surprise and let out a loud scream as she realized what was
happening.   Blood pooled in and upwards out of her mouth, and she bit down
hard feeling Kenya squirm beneath her. Her human form was no match for Summer’s
powerful wolf.

Gotham yelled to her mind,
“Don’t do it– I will. It will haunt you forever if you kill her. Believe me, I
know.” Summer ignored him, and bit hard enough on Kenya’s neck to hear a
crunch. She shook her in her mouth making sure she was truly dead and then bit
down one last time for good measure. Gotham shook his muzzle as Summer pulled
her sharp teeth out of Kenya’s neck. Summer immediately laid down, the gravity
of her actions sinking in. Gotham jumped up next to her and cleaned the blood
away from her face. He nudged her, it was time to go. “We need to get out of
here Summer!”

Gotham needed her to snap out
of it, so he bit her on the back of the neck lightly as he dragged her off the
bed.

Summer reluctantly followed
Gotham, and they retreated into the dark woods on the edge of the forest again.
Just as they felt safe, they heard a roar come from the center of the village.
Gotham rushed up behind Summer and slammed his head into her tail to get her
moving. She knew Slad had discovered the bodies. They would no doubt believe
the lone wolves killed both Kenya and Alton.

Summer yelped and ran as fast
as she could. They were almost out of her old territory when a lone patrol
jumped and lunged at Summer. As he pinned her down, he bit at her and tore into
her flesh. Summer whimpered hearing a very angry growl as Gotham tore the patrol
from her and fought with the wolf.

Summer was hurt, but it was
nothing that wouldn’t heal hopefully by dawn. Gotham nudged her to move along
so they could get back to safety.

Summer limped until she
couldn’t move anymore and collapsed. Gotham dragged the unconscious Summer into
a thick patch of brush. He knew they were far enough away from the village that
she could rest, and he would watch over her and keep her safe. Summer whimpered
as she slept. Gotham curled his body around Summer until he felt her move. When
he felt the movement, he started to lick her, happy she was awake.

The got up and walked the rest
of the way transforming into their human form as they made their way into the
cabin. Summer’s body hurt but most of the wounds had started to heal. She
turned and took in his naked form as he moved towards her. He looked over her
body and turned her around examining the scrapes and cuts.

He pulled her into his arms and
kissed her gently. She responded to him and wrapped her arms around him.
Intertwining her fingers with his, she led him to the shower and climbed in
after the water became comfortable.

 Gotham wrapped his strong,
thick arms around her body and turned her head to his bulging chest. Instead of
pulling away, Summer welcomed the comfort and cried into his amazing chest for
a few minutes. Gotham leaned down and kissed Summer on the top of the head.

Summer slowly let her fingers
rub his soft skin, and relished in the pleasure of how good it felt to be in
his arms. Summer wiped away her tears and slowly kissed his chest trailing up
his neck. Gotham pressed Summer up against the shower wall, and cupped her
large breasts in his hands. Summer’s breath went ragged and his member
immediately hardened against her thigh. Gotham lifted Summer’s chin conquering
her mouth with his. This time his kiss was firm but very passionate. Summer
moaned and pulled her mouth from Gotham’s as she pushed herself off of the wall
and slowly licked her way from his neck all the way back up to his mouth. Her
desire enflamed her whole body and she clung to him, needing him. Gotham picked
Summer up and pressed her against the wall. His alpha wolf raged through his
body, and with one swift thrust, Gotham and Summer were forever joined. He
pushed into her and drove her to the end, pleasure exploding between them as
his body did things to hers she had only imagined. They dried each other off
and went to cuddle in the bed.

“I’ve never been seduced by
anyone.” Summer whispered as she pulled the blankets up to hide her nakedness.

Gotham immediately responded.
“I didn’t seduce you. I feel something for you I’ve never felt before. And I
truly believe there is something between us that will never be replaced.” Then,
it hit him,
she was a virgin.

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
Gotham said in tone that showed he cared.

“No.” The ache for him to take
her and the pleasure had replaced any pain she might have felt.  “Does this
mean we’re mated?” Summer said with a soft almost inaudible voice.

“Yes.” Gotham said as he pulled
Summer closer to him.

“Do you promise me forever?”
Summer asked sweetly.

“Forever, and always you will
be mine.” Gotham said as he kissed Summer sweetly on the forehead.  The two
were happy to no longer be lone wolves, but each other’s comfort and
companions.