Annie And The Cowboy (Western Night Series 3) (55 page)

Not far behind, the animal followed. Angered by that blow to the face it received, the beast ran out of the house with a clear intent to maim. Howling all the while, it raced behind the woman, rolling with ease over the branches that caused her such pain.

This will not be sustainable,
Mary knew, feeling her body reject the pace she wanted to maintain. The animal was built for this. A human being was not. Not wanting to give up, she tried forcing herself to pick up the pace even more – and failed miserably.

It was a rock, smooth as glass and strategically placed by some malevolent force in the worst possible place. At the very second her bloodied foot touched it, the entirety of Mary’s body slid along with it, rolling to the side of the road and ending her hurried stride.

Stunned by the fall, the woman tried standing up, but the sight of the bear, standing about four feet away from her prone body, quickly dissuaded her from that course of action. The living, breathing killing machine was close to her again, and this time there was no getting away.

Slowly, the beast got closer, one step at a time. It seemed more like the behavior of a sociopath than an animal: calculated to scare the prey as much as possible before delivering the killing blow.

Then, something happened that caused Mary to question her sanity: the bear started changing. With every step it took, the creature got smaller, leaner and less hairy. By the time there was no space between them, what was once a wild animal now had the appearance of an attractive human male.

Well over six feet tall and covered in lean muscle, the man had the body of someone who frequented a gym. Fine brown hairs covered most of his body, growing significantly thicker on his face. Speaking of the man’s face, there was something familiar about it.
Where did I see it before?
Mary heard herself ask, her interest in this male having overpowered the sense of bewilderment and terror that held her in control up until a few seconds ago.

Without a word, the man’s eyes met with her own, and for the first time in who knows how long she felt what was lacking in her life: desire.
I must be imagining things.I’m sure I’d have remembered someone who made me feel like this!

Grabbed by her own animalistic nature and feeling only hints of the pain that her injuries should inflict on her, Mary sensually spread her legs in front of the man-bear. Like a beast in head, she offered herself to the creature that conquered her private space, inviting him to conquer her insides as well.

Snarling all the while, the man immediately reacted to her display, his pulsating member rising proudly within seconds. Grabbing her by the waist with one hand, and by the right thigh with the other, he lifted the woman up from the ground like she was a child’s toy.

Lost as he was in the throes of desire, eyes glowing with a beastly yellow hue, the shape-shifter effortlessly impaled Mary onto his erect member with a single thrust of his muscled body. Unable to remain silent, the stripper let out a single moan that communicated more than anything she could possibly say.

Taking the hint, her lover buried his fingers into the more pliable parts of her body before he proceeded to rock it up and down his throbbing manhood. In unrelenting waves, the pleasure kept spreading from in-between her legs, causing every spot that the were-bear touched to feel amazing in its own unique way.

“Yes!” the word came out by itself, shouted by some creature of animalistic lust that resided deep within her person. Mary knew full well of its existence, but it had been so long since the last time it surfaced that she was afraid that it died out.

Here it comes!
She could feel it. A genuine climax of immense magnitude was about to surface. In waves, it came to her, closer and closer, following every thrust of the man’s pelvis. As if it teased her with its proximity, the orgasm hovered over her head for a while. Then, all of a sudden, it drifted back to where it came from, as it had so many times before.

Damn it, come back! I need you!
Mary’s inner beast that screamed in pleasure just a few seconds ago now cried in desperation.

Not now, please not now!
As much as she hated it, this was not the first time Mary experienced this sudden lack of desire. Working the private shows, having so much sex for money instead of pleasure, it came with a cost, and hers came with a fleeting interest in copulation. Man after man had left her apartment disappointed, parting with a woman they could not please. The problem, however, was not theirs but hers.

Apparently seeing this as a challenge, the woman’s powerfully built partner increased the pace of his jackhammering, swiftly attaining and exceeding the speed of any man she had ever been with. Rocketed onward by the power of the bear-man’s thrusts, the climax that eluded Mary for so long came closer again, teasing but just beyond her reach. Then, just like it did so many times before, it receded, leaving her as frustrated as ever.

As if he could tell, the woman’s shape-shifting lover let out a single, inhuman roar before slowing his pace down, this time relying more on the force and depth of insertion than the speed. Less explosively but more thoroughly, the man moved her back and forth, now releasing some inhuman form of moaning himself.

Then, without a warning, he came, shooting a veritable river or warm, viscous liquid into her. It felt good, much better than she remembered it, but the woman’s inability to attain the orgasm she needed had prevented her from enjoying the pleasant, electric sensations the fluid’s presence evoked.

It’s not your fault, whoever you are,
she wanted to say,
but no man alive can drag me out of the pit I’ve dug for myself.

Suddenly, the man’s eyes widened, as if he could tell what she was thinking. Still holding her body, he turned her around mid-air before lowering her exhausted body onto the ground. Laying those strong hands of his onto her shoulders, the man proceeded to insert himself into her again, still firm, despite the orgasm he had less than half a minute ago.

Without a hint of hesitation, the stranger’s enormous member penetrated her softened entrance again and again, attaining greater speeds with each thrust. Sore from the pounding he just gave her, Mary wanted the beast to desist, be he would have none of it. The hands were in their positions, clasped like a pair of steel shackles. There was no escape.

For the first minute or so, this was one of the most unpleasant and degrading experiences of the stripper’s life. Down on all fours, taken and held down like some sort of animal, the humiliation almost made her cry. Then, something changed. Deep within, forgotten and fed scraps for years, the beast stirred.

“More!” The wild side of her personality took control, speaking through her own mouth. “Take me mercilessly and savagely, you vicious beast!”

Caught up as he was in the act, the shape-shifter was all too eager to oblige. Lowering his hands in order to grasp the upper parts of the woman’s arms, the bear-man pounded her so hard he started roaring at the moon again. Almost immediately, the electricity that built up within her center exploded all over her body, bringing with it the climax that had eluded her for so long.

“Oh yessssssssssss!” Mary screamed, tilting her head upward in order to see the stars, but all she could witness was a blur of white light. Then, there was silence.

By the time she came to her senses, everything has completely changed. Granted, she didn’t move an inch from the time her state if bliss everything out, but her perception of the forest was now so different it might as well have been a different place.

Worried for a second that her lover might have left like so many before him, Mary was more than relieved when she found him right next to her, staring intensely. Then, all of a sudden, everything made sense.

“Hugh! Is that really you?” She covered her gaping mouth with one hand as she asked. It had been well over a decade since the last time she laid eyes on the man. He has changed so much, but in the end remained the same in so many ways. The way he looked at her was something no one could ever, ever mimic.

And yet I rejected his advances and let him slip away,
she told herself, turning her head away from the man before her even had the chance to speak.

As if he knew what the woman was thinking, Hugh got closer, put his right hand underneath her chin, and rotated it toward him so their eyes would meet. “What was doesn’t matter anymore, Mary,” he said, his voice coarse from lack of use. “All that’s important is the now,” he continued. “Like I showed you not that long ago,” he finished his sentence, smiling alluringly while displaying an oversized pair of canines.

“Yeah, about
that,
” the woman responded, slowly retreating from his touch when the image of his bear form sprung back into her mind. “What was it?”

Still smiling, he replied in the most playfully coarse baritone she ever heard. “Why, my beloved Mary, what exactly do you mean?”

Typical of him,
Mary concluded, remembering why she dumped him in the first place. “Please be serious once in your life, Hugh. Just what is going on here?”

The grin wiped from his face, the man retreated from her only a little bit before speaking again. “I’m sorry. This
is
serious. I wouldn’t have called you here if I was not.”

Slowly, he changed his position into one that was more comfortable for sitting, inspiring the stripper to do the same.

“I am a shape-shifter, you see. A were-bear to be precise,” he finally said. “Every night, I have the urge to turn into a vicious beast and prowl the wilderness, living the way my ancestors did before the rise of man.”

Had she been told this under any other circumstances, the woman would just about have burst into laughter. However, having seen and witnessed what she did, the only sane thing to do was to keep listening.

“Sometimes,” Hugh continued his story, “the need is manageable. At other times, like it is on the night of the full moon, it cannot be avoided.” The man paused for a second, taking a deep breath. “The things I’ve done before I learned of this place, Mary…. They were horrid.”

Trying to prevent her gasp from being too apparent, the stripper tried directing the conversation toward something a bit more wholesome. “Yeah, about that… what is this resort?”

“It’s a sanctuary for people like me. Everyone who lodges here has their own territory. I’ve been living here for well over ten years now, only leaving for the occasional brush with the outside world.”

“If you enjoy being here so much, Hugh, then why did you invite me?”

Surprised by her directness, the man merely stared into her eyes for a couple of moments. For a good while he maintained contact like that, before finally turning toward the other direction. “I have… I have always liked you a lot, Mary.”

Having known this for a good while, the woman tried extending her hand in order to touch him on the shoulder, but pulled it back quickly.
I want to hear him say it seriously for once,
she justified her decision.

“You’ve always been the star of the class. You had the looks, the smarts, and hell, you had the chops to make the girls want to be you and the boys just want you. But there was something else in there… something only I could appreciate.”

Suddenly, Hugh turned around, and Mary could see why he looked the other way in the first place: his face was now completely red.

“You used to complete me, Mary,” he said, visibly straining to form the words. “When I’d lose my temper… when the line between the man and the animal threatened to become blurred, all I’d need was one look at you, and the battle became that much easier.”

Having stopped for a few seconds to regain his breath, the man grabbed her hand and held it to his heart. “When it all ended, and you left, I lost myself. I lost
this.
The balance between my humanity and the beast became disturbed, and I’ve spent years trying to get it back.”

“Eventually, I’ve found my way to this place, and it helped,” the tone of his voice changed, Hugh let go of her hand “For a while.”

“What happened?” Mary asked, wiggling the fingers of her hand to help against the numbing he caused with that powerful grip.

“The call became too strong to resist,” High responded. “I had to spend more and more nights as the beast. This wasn’t working anymore. The solitude that initially helped me now threatened to take my humanity away completely. For a while I’ve lost hope. Then, on my most recent foray into civilization, I found out that you were still around!”

“After you decided it was not to be,” he spoke, visibly still irritated over what happened so long ago, “I was furious. I didn’t want to have anything more to do with you. Then, as the years went by, I forced myself not to seek you out. A girl like you, I reckoned, simply
must
have struck it big in some way, far away from this untamed place and shady characters like me.”

“I guess the joke’s on you, then,” Mary interrupted, trying to dull the edge of her comment with a smile. “I’ve been up and down what you call the civilized world for so long I don’t know which way is which. Had you called sooner, you might have saved us both quite a bit of time.”

For the longest second in the woman’s life, Hugh stared right into her eyes, deathly serious. Then, seemingly out of the blue, a smile broke through that shaggy beard of his.