ROMANCE: Awakened by the Alpha Bear (Werebear Fantasy Billionaire Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Alpha Male Bear Shapeshifter Paranormal Romance Short Stories)) (18 page)

“Right there,” Natalie
whispered. “That's really good.”

Drake smiled and started to
quicken his thrusts. Natalie's eyes widened even more and she let out a loud
scream.

“Oh God!” she screamed.

Drake grinned and began
rotating his hips against hers. He lightly tugged on her hair and Natalie
tossed her head back in pleasure, coiling her legs around his waist. This being
their first time being intimate, he surely knew what to do.

Finally, he found her inner
pleasure spot as he delved deeper into her warmth. Natalie ran her hands
underneath his shirt and clawed his back, her mouth agape as he continued to
penetrate her. Her womanhood flexed around him, and she felt his member stiffen.

“Come with me,” Natalie
breathed, gripping onto his hand.

Drake did not respond, but his
movements became sloppier and sweat fell from the tip of his nose onto her
body. With a loud groan, he climaxed with her, and fell on top of her,
breathing heavily.

“That was amazing,” he
murmured. He kissed her forehead and added, “Thank you for being so cool
about—well, you know.”

Natalie smiled and replied,
“You aren't a murderer or a drug dealer, right? It's better than that. Besides,
it's kinda cool having my own tiger.”

The two of them chuckled and
Natalie took a deep breath.

“I
do
have to work
tomorrow,” she murmured. “Can you drive me home or should I call a cab?”

Drake smiled and said, “I'll
drive you, my darling. I don't need any creepy cab drivers doing anything weird
to you. Might have to use my claws.”

He winked at her and Natalie
giggled. She felt like a silly schoolgirl.

Chapter
5

 The next day, Natalie hummed
to herself happily as she got ready to go to work. She was still in disbelief
regarding the events from the previous evening, but she was so giddy that she
decided not to worry much about it.

She put on her work uniform and
grinned at herself in the mirror, tucking her colored hair behind her ears. Her
phone was tucked carefully in her pocket, so she could hear if Drake tried to
call her or send her a text message at all while she was on the clock.

After walking out the front
door of her apartment, she slid into the driver's seat of her car and pulled
out of the parking lot to head to her job. It was not a long drive, and as soon
as she arrived, she hurried inside. She was a little late. Chris was tapping
his foot, waiting for her arrival when she walked inside.

“Sorry,” she murmured.
“Traffic.”

“Traffic is never an excuse!”
Chris said, crossing his arms, annoyed. “You'd leave five minutes early if you
gave a damn about your job. Get to table thirteen.”

He put two menus in her hands,
clearly irritated. Natalie blushed, embarrassed by her lateness, and hurried to
table thirteen. Unfortunately, when she got there, there were three people—an
elderly man, an elderly woman, and a teenager she assumed to be their
granddaughter. She scowled as she set two menus on the table.

“Sorry about that. I'm Natalie,
and I'll be your server today. My boss said there were only two of you so let
me go get one more menu, and I'll be right back, okay guys?” she said,
fake-grinning at her customers.

The elderly man scoffed and
murmured, “Damn service ain't good nowhere no more.”

Natalie tried to ignore his
comment as she hurried back to the podium to grab another menu. She gave it to
the teenager and asked if they knew what they wanted to drink.

“Well, my granddaughter
couldn't make a choice because she didn't have a menu,” the elderly man spat.
“Come back in a couple minutes—but don't be too long!”

Natalie did as the customer
asked, but it took all of her greatest efforts not to curse under her breath in
passing. She discreetly pulled her phone from her pocket and checked it. When
she noticed that Drake had not yet contacted her, she frowned and rushed into
the restroom. There was only one stall and it was being used, so she checked to
make sure the shoes did not belong to any of her coworkers. After realizing
that they did not, she quickly sent Drake a text message asking him if he
wanted to make plans again soon. With a lump in her throat, she put the phone
back in her pocket and hurried out of the bathroom. As soon as she walked
outside, the old man at table thirteen was waving at her.

“We're ready with our drinks
now! Waitress!” he shouted.

Customers turned and glared at
the rude man, murmuring amongst themselves about how disturbing he was being.
Natalie sighed and hurried to him.

“Hi there. Sorry about that.
What can I get for you to drink today?” she asked, giving him the biggest, most
fake smile that she could muster.

“I'll have a coke. My
granddaughter needs an orange soda. My wife needs an ice tea. You think you can
manage that difficult order?” he asked, pursing his lips.

Natalie took a deep breath and
nodded, trying her best not to yell at him.

“I think I'll manage, sir.”

***

Natalie took a cigarette break
only half an hour after arriving at work. Usually, she could make it halfway
through service, but customers were being more difficult than usual, so she
needed to let herself calm down and take a break from the hustle and bustle in
the restaurant. She leaned against the brick building in the alleyway with
another waitress named Mariah.

“God, people are assholes
tonight,” Mariah said, taking a drag from her menthol cigarette. She blew it
out of the corner of her mouth and added, “Did you see that dude that tried to
put a tip in my bra earlier? I wish Jeremy would stop letting people get so
hammered at the bar. This isn't a nightclub.”

Natalie nodded and put out her
cigarette.

“It's frustrating,” she
murmured, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. She checked it and frowned,
adding, “This guy I hooked up with last night seemed to be in it pretty serious
with me, and he just hasn't texted me today. Is that weird?”

Mariah shrugged and replied, “I
dunno. I'd give it a few days and see what happens. Sometimes guys are shy. You
know how it goes.”

Natalie seemed unsure, but she
nodded, nonetheless.

“I suppose I could do that.
Yeah. I can give a few days.”

***

A few days passed and Drake
still had not contacted Natalie. She tried calling him, sending him text
messages, and even knocking on his apartment door. It was beginning to become
apparent that he was avoiding her.

After taking a deep breath and
plopping on the sofa, Natalie lit a cigarette and turned on the television.
Heather's bedroom door opened, and she peered into the living room at Natalie
through the small crack.

“Hey, what's up?” she said,
peeking at Natalie.

Natalie turned around and gave
her a small wave.

“Not much, really,” she
murmured. “I'm just having a cig and hangin' out. Not much to do.”

Heather frowned and emerged
from her bedroom, closing the door quietly behind her. She sat down on the
couch beside Natalie and glared at the cigarette between her middle and
forefinger.

“You shouldn't be smoking in
the house,” Heather murmured.

Natalie gave her a dark look
and sucked on the cigarette. It was fairly obvious that she did not care about
Heather's complaints. Heather cleared her throat and raised her eyebrows.

“So, what are you watching?”
she asked, gesturing towards the television.

“
The Transformation of Myra—
it's
some flick about a girl that becomes a wolf. I'm not too sure you'd like it,”
Natalie murmured. “It was, uh, on the streaming service, and I figured I'd
just, you know, give it a shot.”

Heather nodded.

“Ah, I see. Um, I was wondering
how you were doing, honestly. You've been really, really quiet the past few
days, and I just wanted to make sure everything is alright,” she said.

“I'm okay,” Natalie lied.

She gave Heather a false grin.

“Okay,” Heather said, seemingly
unsure as she got to her feet. “Let me know if you need anything, okay?”

With that, she walked into her
bedroom again and closed the door behind her. Natalie took a long drag from her
cigarette and blew it out her nose.

“Don't worry. I won't.”

Chapter
6

Natalie had waited over a week
for Drake to contact her again. The loneliness she was starting to feel was
ruining her days and making her slack regarding her appearance. Customers made
rude comments about her lack of makeup, and Chris was constantly reminding her
that “no one wants to be served by a slob.” She did not care, though. She was
so confused why he would share something so personal with her, only to block
her out for over a week. Nothing was adding up in her head.

“Hey, someone requested you to
serve 'em,” a waiter named Rex said. “Table four.”

“That's not even in my goddamn
section,” Natalie scowled.

Rex shrugged.

“You ain't gotta take him. I
just was deliverin' the damn message. Jeez, Nat,” he muttered.

“Him?” Natalie asked.

Rex had gotten her attention.

“Yeah. Him. Why?”

“What does him—I mean he—what
does
he
look like?” Natalie asked, raising her eyebrows.

“How the hell should I know?”
Rex asked. “Tall?”

Natalie rolled her eyes and
brushed by him to see who was sitting at table four. As she turned the corner
next to the bar and found the table, her eyes widened. It was exactly who she
least expected, yet most hoped, that it would be.

All of a sudden, she felt like
a nervous wreck. She touched her dry, drab desperately-in-need-of-a-dye hair
and then ran her fingers across her plain, rosacea-complected face. Gulping,
she realized how nervous she was to face him, but she had to. She took a deep
breath and slowly walked over to his table.

“Hi there,” Drake said, giving
her a nervous look. He cleared his throat and whispered, “How is it best for us
to talk?”

“Well, make it quick, first of
all,” Natalie snapped. “I have other tables. What do you want?”

“I want a cherry cola—”

“Don't be a smart ass!” Natalie
spat, annoyed. “You've been ignoring my phone calls!”

Drake rubbed his temples and
took a deep breath.

“I haven't been
ignoring
you, per se,” he said. “I know it probably seems that way.”

“Well, it does seem that way,”
Natalie said, angrily. “What possible explanation could you have for just
tossing me aside like a piece of meat after everything you shared with me? I
mean, what in the hell kind of a—”

“Shh,” Drake said, looking
around the room. “People are looking.”

Natalie looked behind her.
Surely enough, customers were staring at them. She rolled her eyes and cleared
her throat.

“Okay. You want a cherry cola.
What else do you want?” she said, irritably.

“Mozzarella sticks—oh and the
chicken parm sandwich.”

Natalie scribbled down the
order and began to storm away. Drake tried to grab her leg and talk to her, but
she pulled away from him anyway. Nothing he could say at that point was going
to make her feel better. She put the order in the window.

“Hey, Wes!” she shouted to one
of the cooks

Wes turned around and raised
his eyebrows.

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Spit in the sandwich for table
four, yeah?” she said. “The guy is a total jackass.”

Wes smirked and saluted her.

“Aye aye!”

Natalie smiled to herself,
deviously, as she hurried to get Drake's cherry cola. She could not quite get
away with spitting in that too, considering the fountain was in front of all of
the customers. She did not want to lose her job over a random hookup that could
not even give her the time of day after sharing his secrets with her and
stealing her heart. After hurrying to his table and placing it on the surface,
she started to walk away, but he called her over to him.

“Hey!” he shouted.

Natalie rolled her eyes and
turned around.

“Yes?” she asked.

“I have a question,” he said.

She let out an angry exhale and
approached him, trying her best to put on her false smile.

“Yes, what is it?” she asked.

“Could you tell me what this is
here? Is that dirt?” he asked, pointing to a small splotch on the surface.

“No, I think that's just from
the surface aging, sir,” she said, giving him an annoyed smirk.

“No, I think it's dirt,” he
said, loudly, assuring that the rest of the nearby customers heard. (They did,
and they all began chattering about the “dirty restaurant” to Natalie's dismay.)
He added, “I think you should probably get a closer look.”

“You're kidding,” she grumbled.

She leaned closer, getting nose
level with the mark to examine it. Drake leaned forward to murmur something in
her ear.

“When you bring me my next
round of food, I'll explain everything. I promise.”

          Natalie pulled away
and gave him a dark look.

          “It better be a damn
good explanation.”

***

After about fifteen minutes of
trying to avoid Drake, Natalie was forced to take him his appetizer. She
grabbed the mozzarella sticks from the window from Wes.

“Hold the spit,” she said.
“I'll give him one chance to apologize.”

Wes seemed sad that he was not
necessarily going to get to spit in someone's food, but he nodded, anyway.
Natalie hurried towards table four and plopped the small platter on the table.
She leaned in close to him.

“Explain and explain good.”

“Listen, Natalie, that man I
was meeting with the other day, well he's something like a doctor to me. He's a
scientist—and the only one with a treatment for my condition,” Drake explained.

Natalie gave him a nod.

“I'm listening.”

“Well, if I don't have my
treatment, I kind of can't control my, you know, state of being, if you will,”
he murmured. “I was flip-flopping between normal and tiger for days. I was
wasting all my energy. I was tired. I couldn't cook or do anything because I'd
risk not being able to finish. It was just a nightmare, really. I'm so sorry if
I hurt you, Natalie. I like you a lot, but I just couldn't face you like that.
I couldn't face the world like that. I hope you understand.”

Natalie's eyes were full of
emotion as she listened to his sad story. Her heart broke for him as she looked
in his eyes and saw his sadness. She took his hand and gave him a small smile.

“I understand,” she whispered.
“I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions.”

Rex bumped into her from
behind. He snorted and nudged her.

“Hey, table seventeen is asking
for their check.”

Natalie cleared her throat and
gave Drake a quiet, knowing smile.

“I'll be back,” she whispered.

Drake smiled and gave her a
nod.

Natalie hurried away and got
the check for table seventeen. After running their credit card, she stopped at
the kitchen window to grab Drake's chicken Parmesan sandwich. She hurried to
his table and set it down in front of him.

“Be careful with that,” she
warned. “I kinda told Wes to spit in it, then I took it back, but he still
might've. He kinda takes any chance to spit in food that he can.”

Drake laughed and said, “Duly
noted. Wanna sit down for a sec?”

“My boss will kill me,” Natalie
whispered. “But I'm off at seven.”

“You know, there's a movie I
think it’s a movie more your style that starts at 8:30.”

Natalie smiled and replied,
“Sounds like a date.”

THE END