Romance: Seducing The Quarterback (47 page)

Anya went hiking with her parents every year until she was
ten. She would hate going into the forest. It was cold and dark. It scared her.
She didn't like the walk. It was hard on her legs and her chest always hurt.
They would have her layered with at least two jackets and three sweaters so she
had to waddle around over branches and roots. Her parents always said it was
good to go out in nature.

There was something there when they went that last time. She
didn't know what it was until it was on them. A fierce beast that seemed as big
as a car reared up when they entered a clearing full of berries. The bear was
black all over with soft fur and a layer of dirt covering its entire body. She
remembered the way the blood was dripping from its fangs when it was over.

Her parents were lying there bloody and she would've been
killed had she not hidden behind the bushes. When she saw it happen, she was in
shock for just a moment and then she ran. She didn't know how she got to the
highway. She barely remembered the way, but she did remember the police car
that stopped and picked her up. Her jacket was covered in blood and he wanted
to know what happened.

Everything after that was a terrible blur. Ever since then,
she didn't like bears or the forest, but Oregon was different. It felt as
though nature had a twin personality. So when she woke up to find herself in
his arms, those arms that she'd never leave, she wasn't afraid. Whatever
happened today would never tear them apart. They would always be together. She
wouldn't be the same without Caleb. The idea of waking up in her apartment, or
going back to Siberia was too much. She couldn't do it. She needed to see his
face every morning like she needed water or air, and she knew that he felt the
same way.

Just looking at him made her swoon. She was pacing around
the room. What did he have to tell her? How could it possibly destroy the bond
they had? The way he talked about it, it sounded like something unnatural, but
she honestly wouldn't care if there were bodies in the basement so long as she
could be with him. He didn't understand her world. He couldn't possibly know
the lengths people had to go to survive in her country. She'd seen a lot, and
she'd done a lot, she couldn't be daunted.

Anya watched him stirring. His face was contorted. She could
tell he'd been dreading the moment when morning came, and she was too. She was
afraid. If he was so sure, knowing how strong their bond was, then it had to be
something terrible.

When he opened his eyes, she was standing over him and he
tried to hide his despair.

“Would you like breakfast, Anya?”

“What were you thinking?”

“I make wonderful blueberry waffles.”

His kitchen was simple. He seemed to have a modest life
despite his means. It had a marble island and a state of the art stove. He had
the finest stainless steel appliances, but she knew this was nothing. A man
like him would often own an industrial kitchen with a chef.

He opened the fridge and Anya looked inside curiously. There
were tons of different types of berries, fish and, in the cupboards, there were
plenty of different kinds of oats and wild vegetables. Anya was starting to see
a pattern in his diet.

He took out a large container filled with blueberries and
scarfed down a handful. He licked his fingers clean and looked up and smiled.
She loved it. He was like a child who just found a piece of candy. The waffles
were delicious. He topped them with honey which accented the blueberries
perfectly. He loved to dip his thumb in the honey and lick it off clean. It was
strange to see the way he savored every single bite. When he was done, he sat
back and patted his stomach. He did seem a little unsettled. He went quiet and
she stared at him for a moment.

“Whatever it i….”

“You don't know that.”

“Yes, Caleb, I do.”

“I wanted to spend more time with you, but it will just make
me hurt more.”

“You don't have to do this.”

“Yes I do! You have to know!” He was furious. She'd never
seen him angry before, and it scared her more than she was expecting. It almost
looked like he was getting larger. His face was contorted.

They walked slowly, hand in hand, to the glass doors leading
to his wooden sanctuary. In front of the tree, there was a statue of a woman
wearing garlands of flowers, holding a globe in her hands. Her stomach was
pregnant and full. On her forehead was a crescent. She almost seemed like she
was alive, mother nature in embodied in white marble. Her eyes were intense and
seemed to stare right through her. Anya felt a shiver pass over her even though
the air was warm. She could smell growing moss and mildew. Nature was all
around her.

He stood back and the air rippled. It was like some
invisible force was changing him. She gasped as he hunched over and fur began
to mar his beautiful body. His face grew longer and his nose was black, like an
animal’s. She shrieked as he took form. She stepped back as far and was jolted by
her body hitting the glass window behind her. The beautiful man she loved was
standing before her in the form of giant black bear. He looked up at her
expectantly.

There was blood all over her shirt and they were lying on
the ground. Their bodies were spread all over the grass and the beast was in
front of her. She ran out of the doors and into the car he had waiting for her.
He ran after her, butt naked, but she couldn't bring herself to turn around.
She was shaking and balling. He was not human. He was a monster in the worst
form she could possibly imagine. He was a predator that could've killed her at
any time. She couldn't think about him ever again. She had to leave this place.
God knows what he would've done to her if she had stayed. She thought she could
love him, but she couldn't. He was a bear. She looked back and remembered the
signs. The porridge, the honey, the berries. All of it should've warned her.
She wretched at the thought of being with an animal, an inhuman beast who would
devour her and crush her skull. The man she'd loved was dead. He didn't exist
in the first place. He was, instead, a shell.

The natives in her area had stories of men who could change
shape. She always wondered why they held on to such a belief. They didn't
consider it a myth or a strange old belief, they always said that it was fact.
They said that they'd seen them before. Many were glad to leave the city, they
said, to get away from the shifters, and now she knew why.

They were demon in human form. They were vicious predators,
they had said. They'd tell people to be wary of men who were like animals. They
said that they ate like animals, they walked and talked like them to, but she
never believed it. It was impossible.

She mourned a man that never was on her flight back home. He
might follow her. She'd have to be careful. A creature like that would have a
fierce temper. He knew where she lived, he knew where she was and he even knew
her ID numbers. He could find her if he wanted to. She'd have to find a new
home.

The plane ride back home was a grueling journey. It took far
too long and she didn't want to be left alone with her thoughts. She could see
them lying in the grass every time she thought of his tender eyes. She could
see that bear crushing her mother's skull every time she heard his deep voice
resounding in her head. She didn't want to think about his despair. She
couldn't go back. He'd kill her. He'd do what the bear did to her mother. She couldn't
put herself in that situation. She reached down and felt where that bruise had
been. She saw his face red with fury. She knew this man would hurt her, no
matter how much she loved him.

His eyes were bulging when he yelled, but he showed her. She
could tell he didn't want to, but he needed her to know. Why did he show her??
Couldn't have just kept his secret?

They couldn't be together. She couldn't even be in the same
room with a bear. Her parents died at the hands of a bear. She couldn't face
that, day in and day out. Her life after her parents had died had been
terrible. She was thrust into an Orthodox orphanage where she was forced to
work the streets for change. They'd told her, those thin lipped nuns, that if
she didn't work she would have to leave. If she didn't get enough, she couldn't
eat.

They fed her slop there. The oatmeal, now a reminder of her
childhood, had been as cruel and tasteless as her life. More than once, men had
offered her a warm bed and as soon as she began to blossom, she'd thought of
doing it. Everyone does what they can to survive. The years there had made her
bitter, but when he walked into her life, she found hope. She thought that things
were finally changing for her. A bear had put her in that situation and a bear
was ready to crush her skull. She'd been a fool to love him. She needed to be
in Siberia where she belonged. She knew this world. She knew what was safe and
what was comfortable. She knew what life would hold for her. She would rather
die alone than with a bear. No matter how safe she had felt in his warm arms,
or with him on top of her, it was just an illusion.

He didn't love her, at least she didn't think he did. He was
a good actor. He just wanted to hurt her. That was what shifters did. They were
known as tricksters. They could convince anyone the natives had said. They
would lure you in and kill you. Some even said that they would wear your skin
when they did. He was nothing more than a cruel beast. He'd fooled her before,
but he would never fool her again.

She started to close her eyes and drifted off. At least she
could find some peace while she was sleeping.

* * * * *

The statue was there. Her long brown hair was flowing, but
there was no wind. She was standing in front of the sun which was glowing behind
her head. The flowers were moving slowly, turning around and around. Her
garland was alive. She stood atop marble steps with tree trunks on either side
of her.

“You'll find peace in the forest. You must go to the
forest.”

Anya sat upright at the sound of the captain's voice
announcing their arrival. It was nice to hear her mother tongue being spoken
all around her. She used to love the harsh way English rolled off her tongue,
but the softer sounds of her language were a soothing comfort.

There was no comfort in the vision she'd seen. She didn't
want to go to the forest, but if she was going to move on from this, she had to
see where it happened. For some reason, she felt like if she could go back and
conquer her fear, she could get past her lingering feelings for Caleb. They
were there, stirring inside of her and she didn't like it. She knew that if
they stayed, she would end up back in Portland, in the arms of a monster.

Nobody there really drove much, and most of them didn't have
cars. It was too expensive and their money was better spent on the things they
needed to survive. Anya, however, did travel to see her parents regularly and
she didn't always have time to take the trains. There were no trains where she
was going.

In fact, nobody lived where she was going. The tundra was a
dangerous place, and the forest in the outskirts was rarely visited. People
there huddled in the cities, avoiding the cruel presence of nature as much as
they could. The forest was a place where the ice could fall down from the trees
and pierce your skull. The wind would bite through your face and freeze your
limbs. You would die there if you didn't know what you were doing. Anya did
know. She had been taught how to survive. She brought heaters, matches, water
and a pack with wood in case she needed to start a fire. She wouldn't travel
without thick layers of clothing, and once she was making her way down the icy
road, she felt like that tiny child again.

Everything comes full circle in this world. She promised
herself that she would never go back there, but there she was, running from a
bear, and making her way back to the place where her parents lost their lives.
Things would end here. She would see the barbarism fresh in her mind and she
would never be able to think about his sweet smile again.

Every car behind her was chasing her there. Every time she
saw a man, he was ready to pounce on her and tear her to shreds for its own
sick pleasure. She couldn't think of him as a he. He wasn't a man; he was an
animal. He was an unnatural creature, and if she didn't get him out of her
head, he would find her and kill her. She knew she couldn't go back to him, but
she didn't trust herself not to. This last trek in the forest would help her
stop thinking about him.

He was still there inside of her like a parasite boring its
way through her heart and making her stomach jump every time she thought of his
face. She remembered how warm she was, and as much as she hated it, she still
wanted to be with him.

Dread was creeping up like a snake. She could feel the woods
getting closer. That image of blood and gore was taking over her mind. It here,
she thought, as she parked her car. Her parents died just beyond those trees.

She was waddling down the path just as she had when she was
a little girl. He was following behind her. She couldn't get away. She could
feel him even though he was on another continent. She saw the shadows creeping
up on her. The woods were silent. The only sound was her jacket rustling as she
made her way.

She could almost see the clearing. It was exactly as she had
remembered. It was stained with blood in her mind, no matter how the sunlight
shown in the grass. She walked over and reached out to pick a berry. She'd
bless it in her own way. This berry would end her love. This place was where it
came to die, just like her parents.

She repeated the words, it ends now, in her head over and
over as she brought it to her lips, but his face was still there. It was too
sweet and when she looked at her fingers, it was stained with blood. She turned
around and went to leave when she heard a roar shake the trees. It was coming,
that cruel beast. It would kill her and she would die just like her parents.

She was running and so was it. She tripped on a root and her
teeth sank into her bottom lip. She turned over and a brown bear was raising
its paw. His claws reached down, but the bear was gone in an instant. A black
bear had its teeth wrapped around the bears’ skull and when he bit down, its
life was gone in an instant. She watched the air ripple. The brown bear was
gone, and a man with dirty skin and long brown hair was lying on the ground
dead. She looked up at the black bear, who was slowly backing away.

She'd find peace in the forest, the voice had said, but was
this peace? Could she live with a monster? Was he a monster?

When his human form began to emerge, she could feel tears
running down her face and all of her doubt washed away. It wasn't her love she
needed to purge, but her doubt. She ran over to him and Caleb was hugging her
as tight as he could.

“How did you find me?”

“I followed you.”

“Who was he?”

“A feral shifter. They are more animal than human. They
survive on berries and flesh.”

“People here talk about shifters like they are vicious
beasts.”

“Anyone who refuses to respect human life is a beast. I
don't do that.”

“I love you, Caleb. I shouldn't have left.” His face had
been red from crying. It was hard to believe that a man like him could be
driven to tears like that. It meant that he really did love her.

She took his face in her hands and they fell over on the
ground with their lips locked and their bodies pressed together. He unzipped
her jacket with his teeth and threw it to the side. He ripped off her layers
and she was exposed to the elements as his tongue moved its way around her
nipples. He took her in his arms and his warmth sheltered her from the freezing
air. His bare chest was against hers and she felt herself getting lost in his
soft fur. He was moving his cock up and down her thigh and she felt her thighs
getting moist. He ripped her pants off and already she felt an explosion coming
to the surface.

“I'm so sorry I doubted you,” she cried out.

He reached out and flicked her clit and she gasped. His
finger was running along her lips and his thumb was moving back and forth over
her clit. She let out a shuddered cry and watched as he stroked his cock. He
reared up and she could see the way the foreskin folded over the head. She was
throbbing with desire. He pinched her nipple and the perfect sting of pain and pleasure
set her whole body on fire. She could feel an explosion coming as his fingers
moved farther and farther inside of her. He left her inner sanctum and moved
farther into her chamber. She was pulsing with ecstasy and his finger was
dripping wet.

His hand was moving furiously along his cock, and she was
trembling. She could feel her body starting to shake as the explosion burst out
in a sudden wave of ecstasy. Within an instant his lips were crashing against
hers and she felt his cock moving around inside of her. He was drilling her
with perfect precision. His fingers were running up and down her clit and his
hips were swaying back and forth, touching the one spot that would drive her
insane.

He pierced through her doubt, her worry and her fear. He took
over her body, leaving nothing but their connection intact. She had always
wanted to be loved and cherished just like this, in the arms of a beautiful man
that would protect her. She had found that man and their passion was going
beyond the brink of what they thought possible. She could feel him inside of
her, tearing through every barrier she had and the sparks that flew between
them, burned their bodies and sent them writhing until their explosion shook
the earth and sent her flying.

They lay together on the forest floor, talking about their
lives. They would have a family and live in Portland. She would give up her in
life Siberia and stay with him for the rest of her life.