Black Bear Fall: A BWWM Paranormal Romance (Black Bear Saga Book 2) (9 page)

“Tease,” she said playfully, “I could feel you were enjoying it. Why quit now. I’m wiling if you are,” she said.

“I’m different now. You don’t hold the same power over me as you used to back then,” Tom said.

“Your body tells a different story,” Oishin said eyeing the sizeable bulge in his trousers.

Tom looked at the wound on his shoulder which had now nearly closed up completely. The skin was raised and red raw and in the centre was a tear the size of a fingernail. All bleeding had stopped and the colour was slowly starting to come back into the skin of his shoulder and chest.

“I can finish you off,” Oishin said in an alluring voice.

“I can heal the rest myself,” Tom said getting up and moving his arm up and down. “I’m thankful for what you did.”

Oishin let out an exasperated sigh and said, “I remember you being a lot more fun. Humans are a bad influence on you.”

Tom ignored her comment and gathered up the leather pouch and tools and put them on the table on the far side of the room. He opened the beat up suitcase and riffled through the contents and found a clean set of clothes. He’d learned that it was always best to have some clean clothes stashed at your base as sometimes you didn’t always get the chance to strip off and put your clothes away safely when you shift.

“I’m going out back to clean up,” Tom said.

“Do you want me to wash your back?” Oishin asked.

Does this woman ever give up, he thought as images of the two of them writhing on the bed naked and entangled with each other filled his mind. Side effects of the healing process he thought, not sure if he was seeing what was his or Oishin's desire.

“Can you give it a break,” Tom said.

Oishin pouted at him and said, “Its your loss. I’m going hunting, do you want to join me?”

Tom knew his answer even before he opened his mouth. The healing process between two shifters was an intimate experience that opened each other to the sensations both physical and mental of each other. To shift and then hunt together was an almost spiritual experience that bordered on the sublime. Joining her would only lead to trouble for him and an opportunity for Oishin to get closer to him.

“No,” he said in a stern voice.

Oishin stood from the bed and glanced at the sleeping baby who hadn’t stirred the whole time. Long term hibernations effects where slower to shake off for younger shifters. Young children and babies could sometimes feel groggy and tired for a couple of days after coming out of the earth. Those effects usually faded away the longer the shifter was alive.

She looked over at Tom and her large eyes twinkled and still retained the dark hue from the healing process. Her face was still smeared with blood and streaks of it ran down the front of her loose dress. She shrugged off the shoulders of her clothing and let it fall to the floor with a whisper. Underneath it she was naked and her skin was as pale as chalk dust. She had the thin lithe figure of a gymnast. Tom had seen mens eyes grow wide in fear as they slowly realised that the thin woman they had started to harass had an impossible strength and could probably crush your windpipe with one hand. Tom had once heard that she was over five hundred years old, other rumours he had heard was that she was much older than anyone knew. She would never reveal her age and all Tom knew was that she was multiples times faster, stronger and more powerful than he was. These were traits that only came with age. Some of the more outlandish things he heard about her was that she was one of the ancient members of the clan. One of ten shifters that were part of the original bloodline and who one day all left never to be seen again. They were the stuff of legends and nothing more than stories, or so most shifters thought.

Tom didn't blink and looked at her waiting for her next move. She stared at him as a smile curled her lips. Your loss the smile said, and with that she turned and left the cabin.

As soon as she left Tom let out a long sigh of relief. He had been holding every part of his body rigid as if he was expecting a punch from someone at any moment.

That was how I usually felt when I was around her, Tom started to remember, an expectation that anything could happen and trouble was right around the corner. Trouble seemed to always follow them when they had been together and it wasn’t until the clan took him in and he started to live in the town of Twin Rock that Tom started to feel a balance in his life.

An hour or so after Oishin had gone hunting she returned with the leg of a deer slung over her shoulder. Tom had been sitting outside leaning against the cool mud covered walls of the house when she strode triumphant out of the forest. What a sight she made, an image that would of drawn screams and shouts if a human ever set eyes on her. She was naked and her hair was slicked back off her face with dried blood. Her body was caked with long red and brown streaks and the leg with its dangling hunk of flesh had ran blood all down her shoulder and back. She looked like she had stepped straight out of an eighties horror movie, a woman who had been attacked and was now out for revenge,

“A male, a big boy,” she said nodding her head towards the leg. “He put up a fight and got a good hit in on me with his antlers. Tore me up real good,” she said turning her damaged side towards Tom. All down her side was a huge black bruise with yellow edges. As Tom looked on he could already see the size of it diminish.

“That’s not like you to let an animal get the drop on you,” Tom said.

“What can I say? I’m a little bit rusty. Being in the ground for so long will do that to you. A few more hunts and I’ll be back to normal,” Oishin said.

She went inside and Tom heard her slamming the hunk of meet onto the table with a loud slap. She came back outside and stood a few feet away from him.

“The showers around the back,” Tom said.

She didn't move a muscle. She just stood before him with a smile playing at the corner of her full lips.

I’m not going to let her get to me Tom thought as he tried his best not to look at the curve of the small of her back or how her breasts moved as she walked. Her smell was intoxicating and filled his senses with the aroma of animal blood and the rich musk of her body after the shifting process. Below all those aromas the one he was trying his best to ignore even as he felt himself harden was the smell of her excitement. It was common for hunting pairs to be barely able to keep their hands off each other after the heart pounding exhilaration of a hunt.

Oishin took a step closer to him and rubbed her hand down her blood caked body knocking dry flakes off of her pale skin. Tom felt pinned to the ground unable to move as her aroma seemed to bombard every one of his senses. She stood before him her eyes twinkling as she looked down at him. Her crotch was at his eye level and she moved her legs apart slightly and from his sitting angle he could see a small amount of the soft pink folds between her legs. He swallowed hard and pictured himself reaching out and sliding his fingers between the warm wetness and watching her eyes roll back in her head as she let out a sigh.

Oishin looked at him and the smile on her face said it all. I know what you are thinking and I know what your heart desires. She turned and headed towards the back of the cabin, glancing back at Tom as she turned the corner.

The noise of running water started from the simple backwoods outdoor shower Tom had constructed and and connected to a rain water collection system. He had even hooked up a beat up wood stove to heat the water.

Tom stayed sitting on the ground with his eyes closed shut. Oishin's aroma still filled him, it was the kind of aroma he wanted on him, to breath it in deep and to taste it. His cock throbbed painfully against his leg as he stood up as if dragged up by puppet strings. He could hear the water cascading and images of it running over her body as the dried blood washed away, he could see her rubbing her hands over her breasts and across the dark nipples that he had licked and sucked on over a hundred years ago. He knew what awaited him if he walked around the corner and joined her.

Tom took a step towards the corner of the house, his heart hammering in his chest. The water sounded like a rushing waterfall as he stood there caught between two destinies. Tom turned around and went inside the cabin and closed the front door behind him. The familiar coppery smell of blood and flesh filled his nose and he sat on the bed waiting for Oishin to return.

You can get through this he thought, don’t let her suck you back into her world you know that path can only lead to heartbreak. Do you really want to go back to being the shifter you used to be and sacrifice what elder Silas did to help you out of the deep dark hole. Get back on the road as quick as possible and you wont have to deal with her alone again.

Tom tried to distract himself with images of Grace and the way she made him feel when they were together. There was something special growing between them and he couldn’t let Oishin destroy that. He imagined sweeping Grace up in his arms when he got back into town and feeling her against his body, both their hearts hammering a rhythm in unison. Focus on that and Oishin will have no power over you he told himself.

Oishin returned to the cabin and steam rose off her naked body now scrubbed of all blood. When she entered she gave him a look of half surprise and disappointment.

She still think she holds power over me Tom thought as he tried not to meet her eyes.

Oishin tapped the suitcase with her foot and said, “Is there anything in there that I could wear? If you want me to get dressed,” she said in a playful tone.

“Theres a few pairs of loose pants and t-shirts that might fit you,” Tom said looking on to her eyes.

I will not give her the pleasure of looking at any part of her body he thought as they looked at each other.

“You’re a good man Tom,” Oishin said giving him a friendly smile.

I think she is finally getting the point Tom thought as he allowed himself to relax a tiny bit.

Oishin kicked open the suitcase with her foot and bent over at the waist and rummaged through the clothes inside it. Tom could feel himself grow as hard as steel as he looked at her bent over and pointing in his direction. The smooth curve of her ass, her long legs and muscled thighs that were slightly apart. The soft hair between her legs and the swollen pinks folds seemed to beckon him. Her scent was intoxicating and all he could hear was the noise of his heart beating like a snare drum. She seemed to stay like that forever, bent over, legs apart as she waited for him. Images of him ripping off his trousers and taking her roughly from behind flooded his brain as he watched her unable to take his eyes off her body. Tom could feel himself begin to rise from the bed.

Oishin stood up and slipped a grey baggy t-shirt on and then pulled on a pair of loose jogging pants. Her sudden movements dragged Tom from her spell and he slumped back on the bed feeling like a man awoken from a deep dream. She turned to him and smiled a knowing smile and crossed the room to the small table with the bloody hunk of meat on it.

She was playing with you Tom thought, she knows exactly what she is doing and is willing to try anything to either break you or mess with you. Don’t let her into your head, get back on the road and then she is the elders problem, he thought to himself as he tried to ignore the painful throb between his legs.

“We leave in thirty minutes,” Tom said getting up and leaving the cabin without meeting Oishin's eyes. Once outside he let out a long sigh as if releasing the pressure that had slowly been building up inside him. Focus he told himself as he went to the car and busied himself until Oishin was ready to leave.

N
athaniel felt
the first warming rays of the morning sun hit the side of his face and and he opened his eyes and looked around. He had slept up in a tree far off the ground and directly across from the hole where his children slept with their new brother. He stretched his arms and twisted his neck and they cracked loudly. He was still feeling the effects of his long term hibernation and would need another few more days before he was feeling himself again. He heard the branches rustle across from him and his wife rubbed her eyes and stretched.

The forest around them was waking as birds began to sing and swoop through black clouds of mayflies as they rose from the warming forest floor. Nathaniel sniffed the air and looked across at his wife. Neither of them smelt the pungent smell of humans. They were safe for now.

“We need to get moving soon,” Nathaniel said in a whisper, “they will be looking for us. I wont feel safe until I have the river at our backs and we are closer to the old falls.”

Melissa looked at her husband and she had tears in her eyes and said, “I’m scared. I haven’t been able to shake it since we left the boys house. Surely you felt it too?”

Nathaniel had been trying to deny to himself what he had picked up on since they snatched the young boy. The scent had been faint, buried under the heady aroma that the boy was emitting. He had laid awake for hours last night watching the trees and sniffing the air for any silent approach on their camp. Every time an owl had hooted he had snapped awake thinking they had found him and his family. The scent he had caught was the undeniable musk of a member of one of his own clan, the smell of another shifter was a scent he had not smelled in a very long time.

He didn’t want to lie to his wife and after over a hundred years together Nathaniel knew that she would know what he was trying to do. “I caught their scent when I stepped into the house. It was so faint at first that I wasn’t even sure it was real. I didn’t want to say anything until we got the boy. I thought I was going crazy.”

“I caught their stench as we left the house. I nearly froze to the spot for a second before I willed myself on. Do you think it’s Tom? Could he have found us after all this time?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe the old man has dealt with him by now. Things could be very different since we left. We could be welcomed back with open arms,” Nathaniel said.

Melissa looked at him in total disbelief and said, “Don’t even suggest we go back. After what we did, after what you took from them they would slay us if we ever set foot on any of their land. The old man always had a soft spot for you, even he couldn’t stop the rest of the clan from getting revenge. Please Nathaniel you have to stop obsessing over the idea we can return home. We made our decision. Our family is the only thing that matters now. We can never go back to the others. I can’t,” and her voice began to break as she continued, “keep doing this with you. We have to be strong together. It is only us now. There is no black bear clan anymore. We focus on our family, strengthen the numbers, thats how we keep alive.”

Nathaniel nodded his head, he knew she was right. On the long nights when he couldn’t sleep and every sound in the underbrush sounded like a potential attacker he had often imagined returning to the clan. He knew in his heart that even after all this time had passed they would most likely be slain on the spot. A shifters memory was long and they didn’t forgive easily. In his late night scattered dreams he imagined being back on the sacred land of the clan and entering their stronghold with his family. He would talk to Elder Franklin and ask for clemency. If Nathaniel was given a chance to explain what they did all those decades ago maybe Elder Franklin would see fit to let him reclaim his place in the clan. Nathaniel could never tell his wife, could never explain to her how he yearned to be trusted again by Elder Franklin. When he and his family had fled from the clan, Nathaniel had lost more than his home, he had lost his identity and the respect his position had bestowed on him. What hurt the most was that he had lost Tom who was like a brother to him. He knew his wife could never understand so he kept it to himself.

Still Nathaniel clung to the dream of returning home and now he had something that the clan wanted. He had the boy. If he offered him up to Franklin and the other elders they might have a chance to rejoin the group. All sins might be forgiven if the boy turned out to be as special as Nathaniel believed he was.

I wish I could believe that they would take us back, Nathaniel thought as he felt a deep ache in his core. Being banished from the clan was like an open wound that wouldn’t heal and he felt the pain of separation every day. He knew Melissa felt it too but she clung to the family like a drowning woman. If they returned they could put the children in danger and that was enough for Melissa to not even risk making contact after all these years. He knew she was right but the draw to return was becoming stronger every day and Nathaniel didn’t know how long he could last before he did something reckless and put his whole family at risk.

Listen to Melissa he told himself, she is right. Stop twisting yourself into painful contortions dreaming about returning home. You made your decision close to forty years ago and now you must lead a life apart from other shifters.

He climbed down the tree and stretched when he was standing on the forest floor. Melissa looked at him from her resting place above and he gave her a weak smile. As he walked to the sleeping place of his children, both old and new, Nathaniel had already made up his mind about what he was going to do next.