The Bear's Arranged Mate: A Bear Shifter Romance Novel (18 page)

Then suddenly the power cut out and the room was dark. Emergency lights came back on, painting the light a dull red. Sarah looked into the tank and saw that its contents were swaying, jogging against the sides of the plastic. Golding was gone.

Panic filled her like a balloon and she took a step back, straining all her senses. A movement in the corner of her eye, but when she snapped her neck towards it there was nothing. She heard something like laughing, but it was too guttural. Inhuman. Another flash, something dark behind her and she snarled and turned. Nothing.

“I’m here,” a voice whispered. She whirled around. Still the empty tank.

He was playing with her. Trying to make her afraid, and it was working. She could feel her pulse coursing through her veins, thumping loudly in her ears, and she tried to remember her meditations and calm herself. She needed all the help she could get, and having her heartbeat in her ears was only compromising her position.

She tested the air with her nose. The scent of him was everywhere, ubiquitous, like water. Like she was swimming in it all around, impossible to localize.

“Now I’m here,” she heard, and something brushed her ear.

Shit
, she thought, for the umpteenth time.

Another movement, and something hard caught her in the side and she rolled against the side of the cement wall, gasping. Spittle flew from her mouth and she looked up. In the flickering red lights, she saw a form warming toward her, as if trying to develop in the dark like a photographic negative. He leered down at her, and it was sick, but she could make out Golding’s features in the glaring face, even though it had ceased to be human.

She growled hoarsely.

“I had thought of keeping you alive,” it croaked, “but I think instead, I will kill you. My first kill as a theriomorph! But I want to see you look at me… look at me knowing you will die. I want to see your fear!”

Sarah resisted, but he kicked her in the side with his massive legs and she groaned and squinted back. She had never known Bears, or any other shape-shifter, to possess the ability for human language. He truly was a hybrid, although his vocalizations struck her as crude, unpracticed, like an organism learning to adapt to itself for the first time. She thought of the first terrestrial air-breathers, and how clumsy they must have been when they struggled out onto the land.

“Now that I know this is possible, I can create an entire nation… a whole army. Think of it!” he said.
He’s losing his grip on sanity
, she thought. There had to be side-effects to this kind of procedure, and Golding had already manifested some psychological instabilities. He was rapidly losing himself in the creature he had become. “Now… squeal for me,” he said, raising his fearsome claw and standing up on his hind legs.

Sarah closed her eyes and waited for the end. Her breathing slowed, and for the first time since she’d stepped into the facility, she
wasn’t
afraid. It was creepy, this calm. As if she were finally surrendering, after raging for so long against the dying of the light. She thought of Connor, and of his smell, his smile. She thought of Cora, her tenacity. Both of them were safe. She did not fear dying, even if she was possessed of a terrible sadness that she could not have died seeing them one last time.

Goodbye, my loves
, she said to herself, and her muscles relaxed.

Then, when there should have been a terrible pain, there was a sound of impact. Her eyes flashed open and she saw another shape wrestling atop Golding’s back. It
was
canine, but it wasn’t a Wolf. It was smaller, more agile, but clearly well-trained. Its big bushy tail swayed precariously as it tried to keep its balance, sinking its teeth again and again into Golding’s neck, even though the monster seemed impervious.

Sarah recognized the Coyote as Laura immediately. She barked, a loud sound that ricocheted off the walls, and sprung to her paws, suddenly filled with purpose. She would not die today, not while there was a chance in hell that she could return to Connor. She lunged at Golding while he was distracted, and her claws were held out in front. Bear claws tended to be used for scraping and slashing, but she felt a surge of relief as they stabbed into his chest and stomach.

Using her momentum, she pushed all three of them toward the tank. Golding snarled and beat down on her with closed fists. It felt like hammers, and although she didn’t feel pain, it was a huge shock that nearly took out her legs.

Laura, on top, savagely bit again, trying to keep Golding occupied as Sarah pushed off her back legs, trying to tip them all over into the small pit that housed the containment pod. Golding suddenly understood what she was trying to do and pounded on her back again with one hand while trying with the other to rip Laura off his shoulder.

There’s only this
, Sarah thought, and made a last heave.

Laura leapt easily off Golding’s back, skidding to a stop beside the Bear, and Sarah let out a sharp breath as the creature tipped backwards. Golding seemed to register his fear, but it was only a nano-second. He collapsed back against the capacitors lining the containment tank. There  was a fireworks display of sparks and a crackling like cellophane as his body was hit with all the residual electrical energy that been stored up in the pod’s system.

The sickening smell of burnt meat and hair permeated the room as Golding screamed once and folded back, his torso burning from the inside out. And then he was still, and the faint sound of singed meat cracking like knuckles. Laura returned to human form beside her and glared vehemently at the corpse. Beside her, Sarah raised a pale hand and set it fondly on the woman’s shoulder.

“It’s over,” she said.

Laura merely nodded. “Aye.”

“You saved me,” Sarah started to say, but Laura turned sharply.

“Because of you, my people are safe,” she began, “you don’t understand the extent of what you’ve helped to accomplish here.”

“He wanted to turn other humans… into him.”

Laura nodded and took a step back. Naked, she was incredibly pale, almost like a ghost in the blackness of the small atrium. “I feel sorry for him. But this was necessary,” she said, as if to console Sarah, “I wish there could have been another way.”

“Me too,” Sarah said with a thin smile, “What will you do now?”

The Asian woman puffed out her cheeks and raised her eyebrows. “What we’ve always done. Survive. Live, love. Aren’t those the most important things?”

She looked away from the burnt corpse still sending tendrils of smoke into the air, but didn’t reply. The answer was rhetorical, and they both knew it. She felt regret about killing and she was glad for it. It meant that she
was
still human. The ability to feel remorse, and although it was a burden to her, one she’d had to endure before, and might again in the future.  The fact that it did not become any easier was a comfort to her.

“Let’s get out of here,” Laura said, “The others are waiting for us. We should leave before the authorities get here. Let them clear this up themselves. Our work here is done.”

“Yes,” Sarah said, and nodded again with the same smile, “Yes.” 

*

When Sarah and Laura re-entered the abandoned apartment complex, they were met with cheers from all the residents inside. It was a strange sensation, hero worship, and for Sarah it was worse than battling the crowds at the Heathrow Airport or the dancing bodies at the Russian club. She only wanted to see one person, and Laura thoughtfully tapped her arm as if to say
go to him
.

Connor had been transferred to a bed on the second level, another small sparse room but it had a big queen sized bed that overlooked the city. His eyes bulged when he saw her and made a move to sit up, wincing again. His shoulder and chest was still half-bandaged, but somehow, he was almost back to his old functional self.

”A little stiff,” he complained as she leaned over him and kissed him.

He leaned back in the pillow, allowing her to wrestle her lips against him. She had never tasted better, and he moved his jaw and lips in turn. Their mouths closed tighter and Sarah turned her head perpendicular to his. His tongue met hers, like a flash in her nervous system, burning into her and she made a moan. It wasn’t a moan of pleasure as it was relief – gratitude, she thought, for being able to kiss the man of her life once again. There had been moments when that seemed like an impossible hope.

Her hands flexed on his chest and moved down, trailing over his stomach to below his navel, where he still had on a pair of jockey shorts.

“Think you’re rested up enough for a little R and R?” she asked, teasing him.

Her hands traced the hem of his boxers and slid underneath, where he was already hard. She squeezed gently and pushed her closed fist down, pulling back his foreskin. Pre-cum rubbed against her wrist and she fidgeted with the buttons on her own jeans, scrambling out of them even as she pulled on his penis.

“Mmrrph,” he mumbled, as she pulled her panties off and flung them against the chair and straddled over him.

She sat up, her bare legs craning over either side of him, and rocked gently. The tip of his penis bobbed up above the waistband of his boxers and she pulled them down around his ankles. Holding her shirt up above her navel, she fidgeted closer, pressing her pubis down against his fully erect member. He sighed and brought his hands to her hips, helping her sway against him.

“I think I’m wet enough,” she murmured, arcing her hips again and spreading her legs wider.

He could full see her sex exposed through the thin black pubic hair and pushed up with his waist, forcing the bottom of his shaft to strike against her clitoris which peeked out like a red strawberry. She quivered slightly on his lap and smiled brightly, reached  down.

“Come inside me,” she said, barely a gasp.

His hands moved further up under her T-shirt, and she let out a moan as she guided him into her. The muscles of her vagina pressed against his penis and she began to move faster, pivoting in a rhythmic arc and closed her eyes. Her long black hair toppled over her head and she leaned down, forcing her groin into his savagely.

She let out a moan similar to his and pulled her down on him as the two crushed themselves into one another. She had lost her propriety, and for the first time in a long time, she allowed the Bear in her to run her passions as they made love. Her knees came up off the bed as she plowed herself again and again against his turgid member.

The wet pounding oozed down her inner thighs and she worked herself into an orgasm, crying out and throwing her head against Connor’s chest in an a weeping gesture. He held her, as he had always held her, and
would always
hold her. Gently he kissed her forehead and combed a lock of hair behind her ear. Her breathing slowed.

Through the window, the clouds simmered, purple and orange, above the rooftops of London. Both of them gazed into the sunset, and said nothing for a long time, until Connor finally cleared his throat and grinned.

“Next time, definitely a family vacation,” he murmured.

Sarah kissed him back in reply.

The End...

Authors Message:

Hii

I really hope you enjoyed my book and if you did I really hope you can support me by rating me on the Amazon store using the below link.

YES, AMY I WILL RATE YOU NOW!

Your feedback means a lot and it will inspire me to get to work on writing more and more BEAR stories for you ;-)

Thanks in advance, you are a star

Amy Star* :-)

ALSO BY AMY STAR

THE BEAR IN ME

Curvy Emily Jones is a recent graduate who is heading to stay in the isolation of Alaska in a bid to find herself in life.
One thing she didn't expect to find was LOVE.
Handsome & rugged landowner Sam is as sexy as they come and he takes an instant liking to the shy Emily. As they grow closer everything seems to be perfect.
Little does she know, Sam has a secret.
Sam is a Bear Shifter and Emily's scent is incredibly familiar to him. He can sense that Emily is hiding something and using his were-instincts he has a pretty good idea of what her secret is and what he is going to do about it.
Emily went to Alaska to find herself, however she has actually found someone who already knows her much better then she thinks....

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