Hunted (BBW Bear Shifter) (Northern Terrace: A BBW Paranormal Romance Series Book 1) (2 page)

              Late that night, I couldn’t sleep again. I figured that the tea from the shop must have had a stronger effect on me that usual. As I tossed and turned, I worried about work and finding the missing paperwork.

              “It’s times like these that I need a drinking buddy,” I joked aloud to myself. “Or a fuck buddy.”

              It would be nice to have someone who I could hang out with in this new town. I had, in a way, become friends with a woman who lived in a nearby cottage. She and I met at the park one afternoon. She was pushing her daughter on the swings as we started to talk. Though she was nice, and she invited me over to dinner a couple of times, I didn’t think that she would be someone who would want to hit the bars with me.

              “
Maybe you’re overheated
,” I thought. “
That’s why you can’t sleep.
”

              Getting up from my bed, I walked over to my closet. Then I unfastened the back of my nightgown and slid it off of my body. Standing naked, I examined myself in the closet mirror. An owl hooted from outside. Peering through the open blinds of my window, I looked up at the full moon in the sky. It illuminated the overgrowth of the forest in the back of the apartment complex.

              “See, Kayla,” I said softly to myself. “There’s nothing there except trees and shrubs.”

              I felt much better as I walked over to a small drawer in my wardrobe closet. Sliding it open, I pulled out a back massager.

              “Should I?” I smiled to myself. Then I thought about how late it had gotten. Sometimes an orgasm could make me tired enough to fall asleep within minutes. I twisted the handle of the massager, and it began to vibrate against my hand. Slowly, I traced it down the curve of my body and pressed it between my legs.

              The vibration was strong in several, steady rhythms. I gasped as it began pulsing against me in the night. Looking out the window, I envisioned myself walking naked through the canopy of forest. Suddenly, I found myself void of a male counterpart to envision myself with in my fantasy. It was then that I realized I might not even be able to make myself finish.

             
Crack
!

              Something had made a loud noise from outside of my window. Quickly, I crouched down, hiding myself from the outdoors. My heart was racing in my chest as I wondered if anyone out there had seen me. Remembering what Kayla had told me, I was afraid to look. When there wasn’t another sound, I decided that it was likely the wind blowing the trees. Slowly, I reached upward and shut the blinds.

             
Crack
!

The sound echoed again. Shaking, I crawled into bed and lifted the sheets over my head.

              “Why did I move here by myself?” I whispered. “This was a dumb idea, Charlotte. Then again, you like to talk to yourself, so you are most likely just crazy.”

              The next morning, I dragged myself into work looking more disheveled than the day before. I was so exhausted after not getting any sleep that even my morning coffee wasn’t doing the trick. My boss seemed to notice.

              “What the hell happened to you?” Jeffrey asked with a disgusted look of his face as he walked past my cubical. This was just the perfect reaction to continue my terrible morning. “You look as if you got into a car accident.”

              “I haven’t been sleeping very well,” I said.

              ‘Bed bugs?” he reacted. “Please don’t tell me you have bedbugs. The last thing that I need is for you to bring those things in here. You know how that’ll go, Charlotte. First thing you have bedbugs, then the office gets bedbugs, and soon all of our properties are infested!”

              “No, Jeffrey,” I said while closing my eyes at his ignorant comments. “I don’t have bedbugs.”

              “Good,” he said looking me up and down. “Keep it that way.”

              The Jeffrey walked back to his office and shut the door.

              “Could you hate me anymore?” I said quietly so that he couldn’t hear me. Then I remembered the missing signature from the file. Everything about it from my memory said that I put the file on his desk. Likely, Jeffrey misplaced it in his clutter of paperwork. However, I still needed to find it, or he would hold me responsible. Walking over to his office, I opened the door.

              “Hey, so, I remember putting it on your–“ I stopped when I saw Jeffrey holding the paperwork in his hands.

              “What the fuck, Charlotte?” he yelled. “Why are you in here without knocking?”

              “You found them!” I yelled excitedly.

              “Yes, I did,” Jeffrey said, tersely.

              “Where were they?” I asked, still excited. Then I looked at his face that was not as amused looking as mine.

              “They were somewhere they shouldn’t be. Let’s just put it that way.”

              “Well, for what it’s worth, I’m just happy that we found them.”

              “Right.
We
found them.”

              “Sorry, you found them.”

              “There is a lot to do today, Charlotte,” he said. “Why don’t you start by faxing these to the Goldsteins?”

              I was angry with Jeffrey’s reaction. Without saying anything, I grabbed the papers hand headed out of his office.

              Getting out of my car, as I returned home from work, I stepped into the road. As I crossed the street, I noticed my good-looking neighbor walking out from his house.

              “Hello,” I said smiling at him. My heart was racing as I looked into his stern, but handsome face. He was tall and wearing a fleece jacket that hugged tightly around his muscular body.

              “Hello,” he greeted back with a reserved smile. I continued to walk toward the stairs that lead up to my place when I turned around. He was walking toward his SUV that was parked on the road.

              “I’m Charlotte, by the way,” I said.

              “Hi Charlotte,” he said turning around. “I’m Grant.”

              “Nice to meet you, Grant,” I said. “Just tell me if I’m ever too loud upstairs.”

              “So far, so good,” he smiled at me. Then he started for his SUV. From the back of his jeans, he pulled out a candy bar and began to unwrap it.

              “Sweet tooth?” I said, smiling from the middle of the stairs.

              “I guess you could say that,” he smirked.

              “I think that I saw you grabbing a candy bar from the store the other day.”

              “I’ve been caught,” Grant joked as he held his hands up. I giggled as he stepped into his SUV. “See you around, Charlotte.”

              “See ya,” I replied. Then Grant pulled off of the curb and drove down the street.

~

              “He’s incredibly handsome, mom,” I said as we talked on the phone. My hands slipped into some mittens, and I opened up the oven.

              “I’m too young for grandkids!” my mom joked.

              “Have you ever heard of Murphy’s Law, mom,” I joked back. “You’re not supposed to tease me about stuff like that.”

              “You’re right,” she said. There was a pause for a moment before we both started laughing again.

              “Well, thanks for the cookie recipe,” I said as I pulled a tray of a dozen gooey cookies from the hot oven. Sheets of warm air brushed my face as I put the tray on top of the stove and closed the oven door. “I’ve seen him eating these caramel chocolate bars, so I knew you’d have a matching cookie recipe.”

              “When are you going to give them to him?” my mother asked. “You know they are best when warm.”

              “I’m going down there tonight,” I explained as I drizzled a light amount of warm caramel on the tops of the cookies. “He pulled up in his truck about an hour ago.”

              “It’s sort of late, don’t you think?” my mother asked. “It’s ten o’clock at night here; must be at least an hour difference to where you are.”

              “We’re in the same time zone, mom,” I laughed.

              “Oh, right.”

              “He’s in his late twenties or early thirties,” I said. “I don’t think he’s an early bird.”

              “Okay, sweetie,” she said slightly condescendingly. “Whatever you say.”

              “Okay, mom, I’m going to let you go now,” I said as I finished up placing half of the cookies on the tray. “I’m going to bring half of the cookies to him tonight.”

              “What are you doing with the others?” she asked.

              “I’m going to bring them to my boss tomorrow,” I explained. “Maybe this will make him less of an asshole to me.”

              “Oh, dear!” my mother yelped.

              “Sorry,” I said. “Love you. Tell dad and Kayla I send my love.”

              “Love you, too, sweetie,” she said. “I’ll tell them that. Have a good night.”

              Hanging up the phone, I walked over to the mirror and adjusted my hair so that it lay evenly over my shoulder blades. I, of course, decided to wear a low top so that as much of my cleavage could show as possible. Still, I found the shirt to look tasteful enough that it wasn’t so presumptuous.

              I grabbed the tray of cookies and headed down out the door. As I walked to the door to Grant’s apartment, I noticed that the lights were off from the window. Looking back, I saw that his truck was there. Suddenly, I started to think that my mother was correct about the timing. Rethinking my plan, I decided to bring the cookies to him on another night.

             
Crack
!

              My head perked up as I heard the sound from the night before booming from the backwoods. The moon was still full in the sky, illuminating enough for me to see. It could have been that I was groggy from not having enough sleep or, possibly, I was suddenly on the lookout for adventure, but I decided to investigate.

              Walking around the other side of the stairs, I stepped on some stones placed along the grass. Holding tightly onto the tray, I felt my heart racing faster as I neared the source of the noise.

Turning the corner, I heard another sound at the entrance of the trees. Stepping in closer, to the front of the forest, I saw a chocolate candy bar wrapper resting on a low hanging branch.

              “What the hell?” I said to myself as I stepped toward the darkening lining of the trees. “Okay, Char, stop talking to yourself again.”

              My hands were shaking as I picked up the candy wrapper. It was the same chocolate bars that Grant liked to eat. Something reflected off of my eyes in a clearing behind the trees. I pushed apart a few branches and stepped into the forest.

              This was my first time being inside of the trees. Even during the day I hadn’t taken stroll. When I found another candy bar wrapper, I realized that Grant had ventured into the forest. Then it dawned on me that he could have seen me naked in the window. I suddenly became overwhelmed with embarrassment.

             
Crack!

              The sound echoed around me. Now that I was closer to the source, I could tell that the sound was from a branch breaking.

             
Crack!
It happened again. This time the sound was coming from my right. I spun around to see what made the noise. Only a few yards away from me was something behind one of the trees. Quickly, the shadow moved behind another thicket of bushes.

              I started to feel even more nervous than before. Realizing that I didn’t know what kind of creatures lived in the forest, I decided to go back to my apartment.

             
Crack!

              Now the sound was closer to me than ever.

              “Grant?” I called out through the trees.

              He didn’t answer. Still, I could feel that someone was watching me.

              “I’m sorry to bug you,” I said, hoping that whoever watching me was in fact Grant. “I’m just leaving now.”

              Right as I turned around, another branch broke behind me.

             
CRACK!

              I turned around to see an enormous bear charging at me through the trees.

              I screamed as loudly as I could as the bear neared me. Pushing my way through the trees, I dropped the cookies all over the forest floor. The branches seemed to be too close together for the monstrous bear to get though. However, it subtly wasn’t this animal’s game. It broke every branch in between us with its colossal head.

              Pushing toward the opening, the bear slashed its claw at me. My blouse was shredded around me. Covering my breasts with my arms, I screamed as I fell out of the thicket and onto a patch of grass in a clearing.

              As I scrambled to get up, I didn’t hear a sound from the trees. My mouth was dry; too dry to scream for help. I was also extremely winded from nearly getting killed by the horrific animal.

             
Crack!

              Another branch broke near me. I turned to run as the massive bear lunged out of the forest at me. Its paws found me, knocking me to the grass again. A thick musk like death perfumed the air as the bear breathed near my face. Just as I tried to scream, something hit the bear in the back. The monster flinched as it stopped attacking me. Then another object sunk into its hide. Looking up, I saw that arrows were sticking out of the bear’s thick fur.

              From the other side of the trees, a man was holding a bow. Squinting for a closer look, I saw that it was Grant. He grabbed another arrow from quiver that was slung over his shoulder. Arching back, he pulled the bow and shot another arrow. The bear reacted. Its huge claw swung into the air, attempting to deflect it. Instead, the arrow made its way through the paw.

              The bear roared before charging its attacker. Grant tried to pull another arrow, but the bear was too fast. It lunged at Grant, slashing him with its claws. I needed to do something to save him from the animal, but there was little that I could think to do.

              “Get an arrow!” Grant yelled. I looked down at my feet and saw that the quiver of arrows had rolled toward me. I pulled one out and rushed at the bear. Jabbing it in the hind legs, it roared so loudly that I saw owls fly from the treetops.

              The bear now had its attention on me. It turned around and rushed me in a rage as blood came from the wound I created. Just as I went to shield myself from its attack, something cut through the air. The bear paused and looked at me lazily. An arrow had struck it in the eye.

              Suddenly, the bear began to twitch about violently. It panted and growled as it rolled around in the clearing. Then I noticed something impossible: the bear was shrinking. Slowly, it riled about, kicking up grass until I saw a man lying naked on the ground. My mouth felt like it had hit the floor when I noticed whom the bear had changed into in front of me.

              “Jeffrey?” I asked. Jeffrey stood up with blood coming out of his eyes. The arrows were in pretty deep still as he gave me a terrified look. Limping, he dashed through the trees until I could no longer see him.