Rough (The Bear Chronicles of Willow Creek Book 1) (7 page)

Just as he opens his mouth to answer me, I hear another bang followed by a woman storming into the room looking pissed off.  Releasing a rush of air from my lungs, I immediately assume that I have just met Ethan’s very pissed off girlfriend or something even worse…his other wife.  God, it would be just my luck to find out I had just married into a polygamous relationship or something.

Pushing me farther behind him, Ethan bellows, “What the fuck are you doing here Marissa?”

Peeking around the side of him, I see the woman now known as Marissa, smile slyly at him before taking another couple of steps into the room.  All of the guests are still absolutely frozen, seemingly unsure of what they should be doing or how they should be reacting. 

Swinging my eyes back to the woman in question, I immediately cringe behind Ethan, when I hear a low rumble come from within her chest. I narrow my eyes at her in disgust.  You have got to be kidding me.  Did that crazy bitch just growl at me?  What the hell is wrong with these people that they feel the need to growl all the damn time?

“I will not allow you to marry her Ethan.  You cannot bring an outsider into our town and expect me to just sit by and do nothing.  I won’t allow it!” she yells.

Swinging his head to the guests, Ethan nods at one of the men with the same look of shock on his face as the rest of the room.  “Eli, get up here now.”

In the blink of an eye, the man Ethan called Eli is standing beside us, already assuming a fighting stance, before turning and giving Ethan a subtle nod.  For the life of me I can’t figure out if that’s a nod of approval, encouragement or something of the latter, but at this particular moment I don’t think I even care.  I just want someone to kick this woman out so that we can continue on with our day.

“You have no right to be here, Marissa.  I warned you that you were to leave my wife alone.  By coming here, you’re going against my word.  You know what that means,” he says, as he gives subtle nods to a few of the men standing at the back of the room. 

As soon as they get the silent signal, they all begin to move in on Marissa in a formation that seems to be meant to corner her.  Even though their movements are completely silent, she is instantly aware of them moving around her. 

Fisting her hands into her hair, she lets out an ear-piercing scream that causes me to immediately cover my ears in order to muffle her horrible shrieking.  My God, this chick is completely batshit crazy.  Who the hell does something like this in the middle of a wedding?

“I would rather die, than allow this monstrosity to go on any longer,” She bellows.  Before I can even register the fact that she is moving, she takes a running leap.  Fisting the back of Ethan’s shirt, I bury my face into his back unable and unwilling to witness what is about to happen. 

Squeezing my eyes tightly shut, I suddenly hear a popping noise, and all the hair on my body seems to abruptly stand on end like the entire room has just been filled with electricity.

Instantaneously, I find myself thrust towards Eli as Ethan’s entire body begins to shake.  Pushing me behind him, Eli thrusts one arm back in a move meant to keep me behind him.  Everything seems to be happening so fast, I’m completely unaware of the fact that Ethan is no longer standing to the left of us.  In his place is the largest black bear I have ever seen in my life.  I’m so shocked it takes me a moment to notice that the floor around the massive bear is littered in what were once Ethan’s clothes.

Grabbing onto Eli, I slam my eyes shut as a whimper escapes me.  “Oh my God Eli,” I sob. “What happened to Ethan?”

I am so utterly terrified, I don’t dare open my eyes for fear of what I will find in front of me.  I’m almost one hundred percent positive that I may have just pissed my damn pants I’m so scared.  Why the hell isn’t anyone doing?  God, Ethan.  Someone has to help Ethan!

The fear I feel for Ethan at that moment, is enough to have me opening my eyes and scanning the room in a desperate search of my new husband.  I’ve barely even swept a quarter of the room, before the second black bear grabs my attention.  Just like the first bear, this one has Marissa’s clothes lying on the floor in tattered pieces around it. 

Suddenly, my entire body freezes, the only thing capable of moving is my eyes, as they go back to the position of the first bear.  Suddenly, the giant creature stands on its hind legs and lets out a roar so loud, I immediately throw myself down on the ground and try to remember everything I learned that one summer at camp when the counselors taught us about what to do if you are caught in the middle of a bear attack. 

Step one make yourself as small as humanly possible.  Step two play dead and don’t make a sound.

Oh fuck, who the hell am I kidding.  If these bears decide to attack us all, we are so totally screwed. 

Deciding I’m best off to keep my eyes on the animals in front of me, that way I’m at least aware of what is going on. I look up just in time to see the smaller of the two, run toward the other.  Dropping down to all fours, the larger bear seems to tuck its head down in a protective manner before charging ahead. 

The sound of them crashing together is so loud it causes me to fall back flat on my ass as I desperately try to scramble back in an attempt to get as far away from them as possible.  As I move across the wood floor, I’m unable to take my eyes off of the sight playing out in front of me.  The bears are moving so fast I can no longer tell which is which.  It’s literally just a flash of black fur, and white teeth as they both go after one another for the kill.

The smashing of their jaws and the sound of their enormous paws hitting each other has me cringing away in horror just as I see the first spray of blood.  The sounds coming from the two animals are so loud, I swear my hearing is going to be impaired if I make it out of this alive.   

The fight between the two seems to go on for hours when I’m sure it’s really just a couple of minutes at most, before the smaller of the bears attempts to scamper away, appearing to no longer be up to the fight.  Instantly I notice that the smaller bear seems to be bleeding heavily, but from where I’m not sure.  It doesn’t seem to manage to get more than two feet away before the larger bear swings its paw and connects with the side of the other animal’s head, causing it to flip over onto its side, where it lays unmoving.

Rearing onto its hind legs, the giant bear let’s out another horrendous roar, causing me to scream out in fear.  No longer caring about making myself appear as small as possible, I scramble up onto my hands and knees and push myself up onto my feet.  Lunging towards the doorway closest to me, I take off with as much speed as I can muster.

At this point, I no longer care if the damn thing comes after me next I just need to get the hell out of there.  Running as fast as I can, I don’t dare stop even when I’m outside of the house and entering the forest that lies on the perimeter of Ethan’s property.

I am so focused on getting as far away from this nightmare as humanly possible, I don’t even notice my legs begin to burn with exhaustion, until they suddenly give out on me.  Glancing over my shoulder to make sure that nothing is following me, I let out a sigh of relief and begin to crawl towards a cluster of fallen trees.

I can barely catch my breath.  The adrenaline coursing through my veins is causing me to shake so bad, I’m positive if anyone saw me they would fear I was having a seizure. 

Attempting to calm my breathing, I close my eyes and try to make sense of what the hell just happened.  None of what I just saw makes any damn sense to me.  How the hell did a bear even get into the house, let alone two bears? 

As my breathing begins to slow a thought finally flashes through my mind.  I can’t believe that I’m just realizing this now, but not one of the guests bothered to try to get away.  Hell, come to think of it, they didn’t even look scared.

Taking a second to go over the events of the past few hours, and attempting to make sense of what just happened, causes me to have a pounding headache.  None of it makes even a lick of sense and no matter what way I try to spin it I just continue to sit here confused as all hell.

Deciding that there may not be a way to explain what just happened, I settle for taking a moment to think about Ethan.  Inhaling deeply, I picture his handsome face, and feel tears beginning to pool in my eyes.  I didn’t even know him, but the thought of never seeing him again leaves me feeling absolutely empty.  We didn’t even get one day together.

As thoughts of Ethan flitter through my mind, something suddenly jumps to the forefront of my thoughts.  Where Ethan was standing, there was suddenly a bear.  Where Marissa was, there was also a bear.  Closing my eyes again, I try to picture the two animals that were standing in front of me just moments before. 

There is something going on here that just doesn’t make sense, a piece of the puzzle that I have to be missing. Straining to put the pieces together, a gasp escapes me as they all begin to come together. 

The bear’s big golden eyes flash in my mind.  I may have only spent moments gazing into those eyes, but I would never be able to forget them.  The bear had Ethan’s eyes.

Slapping my hand to my mouth to smother the scream attempting to make its way out of me, I focus on what I now know has been right in front of me this entire time.

Son of a bitch.  My husband is a bear.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Ethan

LOOKING AROUND
the room, my bear seems satisfied that he’s put a stop to any threat and he slowly allows me to gain control again.  As soon as I shift back, I yell out.  “Amelia.”

Swinging my head around, it takes me only a moment to realize she isn’t here.  Looking towards Eli, a shoot him a questioning glance, but all the fucker does is shrug his shoulders.  I should have known better than to trust him to keep her safe.

Standing naked in front of everyone, I point to Marissa.  “Take her to the cell below town hall.  I’ll deal with her as soon as I find my mate.”

Not waiting for a reply, I run out the door and use my heightened senses to follow Amelia.  It takes only a few minutes of traipsing through the forest behind the house, before I find her hiding behind a fallen tree. Focusing on her nearly hidden form, I notice immediately that she is shaking like a leaf.  Taking a tentative step towards her the leaves crunch beneath my bare feet alerting her of my presence.  Swinging her head in my direction, the look of relief that crosses her face is almost enough to bring me to my knees.

“Ethan?” She asks, causing me to smile as my bear rolls around inside of me damn near giddy with relief.

Walking over to her, I ask her to get up.  “I’m not gonna hurt you.  Just please get up and let me try to explain all of this to you.”

She stays frozen in her hiding place, but looks up to meet my eyes.  “I’m not coming out. I’m not in the mood to talk right now. I need time to think.”

Crossing my arms over my bare chest, I try again. “I’m not gonna leave you out here alone, so you may as well just talk to me.”

I can hear her heart pounding as she screams. “You became a bear Ethan!  A real live fucking bear.  Hell, was the man who married us is coyote?  Perhaps one of our guests is cougar.  How is any of this even possible?”

“I’ll explain, if you’ll just give me a chance,” I growl out, reaching down and pulling her out of her hidey-hole.  She tries to fight me, but I slap her tight ass and cradle her in my arms.  “Stop it, before I drop you.”

Once she makes contact with my bare skin, her eyes go huge.  “You’re naked.”

Chuckling, I sit down at the foot of an old oak tree and hold her securely in my lap.  “I am always naked after I shift.”

The word shift makes her eyes flare, as if she had forgotten about my bear.  She studies my face, before saying.  “What are you?  I’ve heard of werewolves, but never werebears.”

I let out a little chuckle, before replying.  “We’re called shifters, not weres.  That’s a name people made up for fairy tales.  We’re not the monsters you’ve been told about all your life.  We’re just people that also happen to be part animal.”

“So, you don’t go around biting people and howling at the moon?” She asks her body stiff as a board.

“Some of us like to howl at the moon, but not bears.  I’m more about fishing, eating honey, and all of that bear type shit.”

My words have the desired effect, and her body relaxes into mine.  “So, you’re not gonna eat me.”

“Oh, hell yeah I will.” I reply, placing a soft kiss on her temple.  “I plan to eat you every day for the rest of my life.”

Looking down at her, I see that her fear is quickly being replaced with lust.  I inhale deeply, breathing in her scent.  “In fact, I think I may just eat you now.”

As I go in for a kiss, she pulls back and shakes her head.  “We need to talk.”

“We’ll talk after,” I say, forcing her to accept my kiss. 

As soon as my lips make contact, she releases a sigh and opens her mouth to me. Our tongues duel for dominance as I slowly rub small circles over her back. She somehow tastes different than she did before, different than any other woman I’ve ever tasted.  It takes me a minute to realize what it is.  Then, it clicks.  She tastes like mine, all fucking mine. 

My hands skate down her back to her ass, I easily lift her up and spin her so she’s straddling my lap. I pull away just far enough to tug her dress over her head, and then dive back in for another taste. My fingers dig into the flesh of her ass, squeezing the rounded globes.  Then, I move up her back and unclip her bra.  Pulling back again, I tear the offending fabric from her body and plaster her naked breasts against my bare chest.  Her hardened peaks bite into my chest, sending a wave of heat to my already straining cock.

Taking my lips from hers, I kiss a trail to her ear, nipping the lobe with my teeth.  “I want to taste every inch of you.”

Her hands come to my head as she twines her fingers in the hair at my nape, forcing my mouth back to hers.  “I want you inside me.”

Hell yeah, that’s what I want too.  “I have to get you ready, darlin’.”