Chapter One:
I stirred from sleep, groggy and confused. A chill ran through my body, causing goosebumps to prickle across my skin, and I pulled the sleeping bag more tightly around me, trying to trap in as much body heat as possible to keep warm.
God, my head was spinning....
It took me a confused moment to register where, exactly, I was, lying on the ground, surrounded by a tent, and most baffling of all, all alone.... I'd sworn he'd been lying next to me just moments before. And sure enough, there were his sleeping things, his pillow and blankets, lying casually by my side. I placed my hand on the pillow. It was cold, but still rumpled from where his head had rested upon its surface.
I lifted the pillow to my face, closing my eyes and inhaling his scent. I drew my body into myself, letting thoughts of him fill me, his smell going even further in waving me along toward an inviting, dreamlike trance.
I missed his arms around me so badly, even in that fraction of an instant, and I needed to figure out where he'd gone as soon as possible.
It turned out finding him didn't take that much time at all. Upon lowering the pillow from my face, I heard the faint sound of grunting coming from outside, and instinctively the corners of my lips began to push upward, into a knowing smile.
Of course, that was where he was....
I didn't even have to look to know it. That was why we'd come out here, after all. He'd been missing his natural element, and I, for my part, had begun to feel guilty about occupying so much of him. His time, his energy, himself….
He'd insisted, trying his best to make me understand, that it wasn't at all like that for him. That I was nothing but a positive influence over his life, and that he didn't know what he would do without me. He could think of nothing he would rather have occupying his time, and for that at least, I felt flattered, even though I still felt burdened with some guilt for having taken up more space than I, perhaps, deserved in his life.
Suffice it to say, he'd taken me up on my offer to come out here camping with him quite readily. It must have been nice for him, I thought, to be able to spend time in his natural environment in the midst of spending so much time caught in the rat race of the city. Or, at least, in one of his natural environments....
It was hard for me, honestly, to fully comprehend how things must have been for Jason. To be split between his two worlds, and equally capable of adapting to whichever he found himself in. I, for my part, was a city girl through and through, and though I could certainly see the appeal that the occasional retreat into nature such as this must have held for any soul in need of rest, I doubted whether a place like this could hold all that much appeal for me for a period spanning more than a weekend at a time.
Already, I was missing WiFi, cappuccino, the noise of the busy city streets....
But I wouldn't trade the time spent with Jason for any of that. Not for anything in the world.
I took in a deep breath, trying to still my nerves. I'd seen him in his transformed state of being before, of course, but it was always a lot to take in. I couldn't deny the fear that tended to well up inside me, in spite of myself, whenever I thought about what happened to him in the course of his transformations.
The loss of control.... The distortion of his body into such a powerful, hulking beast....
And yet, somehow - it was hard to explain, really - something about it aroused me.... Knowing that, beneath the surface, he consisted of so much power, so much fury, and that, if he wanted to, he could tear me up into little, tiny pieces....
God, my head was going light....
I slowly peeked out through the flap of the tent, knowing full well what awaited me outside, yet still feeling tentative about it all the while.
And sure enough, there was Jason.... Or rather, there was a massive, snarling grizzly bear, pacing with measured footfalls around the campfire. His breath steamed hot into the cold night air, his nostrils flared, and his pelt strobed with the intensity of his steps, leaving me with an impression of the utmost awe and disbelief.
This, I felt, was a sight that I might never grow used to....
I didn't want him to see me just yet, so I tried to remain as discreet as possible as I peered out toward him in the darkness. There was just so much beauty to be seen in him, even in this state of being, which a normal girl might have taken to be frightful or unusual.
My mind began to dip backwards in time, to the first time he'd told me about what he was, about his abilities and everything.... I'd laughed it off at first, as I'm sure just about any sane human being would do, and if I hadn't already fallen so madly in love with him, I might have called things off right there on the spot. It was, I felt certain, some form of insanity....
But then he took me off into the woods one day, and showed me his powers, shifting right in front of my eyes. I don't know what exactly it was that convinced me to go with him, honestly - if any other mad man had made such a claim, I think it would be safe to say I wouldn't have been caught dead going off into some secluded patch of woods with him as per his request.
The only explanation that I could really think of that explained it to any degree is that I actually did believe him, deep down, even as crazy as it sounded.
And it was true, once I saw the evidence revealed before my eyes, I was left quite taken aback - but not enough to let it diminish my feelings for him. It had been a pretty hefty blow but not a deal breaker, by any means. By that time, the two of us had become so close, our lives so dependent on one another in so many intense ways that ending the relationship would be too unbearable a loss for me. I felt as though I needed Jason, on so many levels, and the fact that he'd been willing to share his secret with me made me think I could trust him - for better or for worse.
Of course, though, Jason had had his share of conditions now that I knew the truth. He told me that there were certain lines our relationship could never cross, certain territory into which we could never have a hope of entering. And that, too, I'd accepted, because the love I felt for him was so deep, so intense, and I had a hard time imagining how I could hope to fill the place my love's absence would leave should he vanish from my life.
That's not at all to say, of course, that living this way was easy. Not by any means. For the most part, I could say with considerable honesty that I was happy being with Jason. Even sharing his secret was something of a special form of intimacy to me, something that united us even more thoroughly than the fact of our love itself.
But the baggage that came along with all of that.... Sometimes that could be difficult to deal with. For instance, sometimes I would see other young, happy couples, and I would envy how simple and carefree things were between them. They surely didn't have this magnitude of secrets forever looming over them, threatening to sabotage things without a moment's notice. Even worse, some of these couples would be strolling along happily with children in tow, and I would feel the acuteness of our strained dynamic beginning to get to me.
Jason had made it a clear stipulation that, were things to ever progress further in our relationship, he would be unwilling to have children due to his condition. He didn't know what would happen if a shifter such as himself were to have offspring with a normal human being, and he didn't dare to run the risk that such a child could wind up a freak for life, like himself.
I'd tried to talk him down from this line of thinking, trying to make it known to him that he wasn't a freak, but he refused to listen. And so I went along with him in silence, letting him believe what he wanted to believe, and convinced that I would be unable to change his mind about the subject, at any rate.
Oh well, I thought... I would just have to see how far along things progressed, and anyway there was always adoption. Hell, for that matter, I didn't know with the utmost certainty that I would have wanted kids anyway, with him or with any partner. It was just his manner of nixing the subject outright that troubled me, but for the time being it seemed best to hold my tongue with regard to the matter.
Besides, as difficult as moments such as these could sometimes be, they were only small complications, at least when it came to the grand scheme of things. They were nothing compared to the closeness I felt to him any other time, like now for instance.
For some reason, I loved seeing him in his shifted form, so powerful, so fierce, yet so in control of himself and his faculties. Presently, as I watched him, he was bucking back onto his haunches, lifting his body up toward the full moon, and roaring, like you might expect a wolf to do. The fierce boom of his vocalizations sent a chill through my body, and I watched, fascinated, as he slowly brought himself back down to Earth once again.
Lazily, now, he sauntered through the clearing, his massive pelt dragging across his bulk in the darkness, the sight astonishing to me, the wonder never quite wearing off. Suddenly the beast lunged upward once more, smashing his back up against a tree, and scratching himself up against it, in the manner that any other bear in the world would do, and I couldn't help but bust out giggling at the sight of it.
Immediately, his eyes darted toward me, and I froze, suddenly scared out of my wits.
He pushed his weight back down onto all fours and began to pace rapidly toward the tent, and the primal, instinctive side of myself began to panic. I knew it was Jason, but I still felt so afraid all of a sudden. Maybe he'd lost control this time, and maybe this massive beast barreling in my direction was intent on devouring me as a midnight snack.
If I was indeed a midnight snack, though, I certainly must have proven myself an unappetizing one. For now, he stopped inches from my face, grunting as he breathed, and staring fiercely into my eyes, so that I could feel my blood running cold. His breath scorched me as it kissed my cheeks, and all I could do was wait, wait, and pray that the Jason I knew and loved still lingered beneath the surface of the animal.
But then, sure enough, there came that long, grizzly tongue of his, darting out and sliding along my cheek, and I burst out laughing. He was kissing me like a dog, hungrily lapping up my skin, but clearly there was no malicious intent to be found in his actions.
I was giggling, my face getting soaked, and I couldn't stop myself from swatting at him, crying, “Stop! Stop! Cut it out!” with a smile on my lips all the while.
At last, Jason showed mercy on me, withdrawing his long tongue and shifting back into his human self, his naked body bearing down on top of me and looking especially fine in the moonlight just then and there.
“Spying on me, I see?” he said, with a playful grin, and I smiled back at him.
“I just couldn't sleep.... I thought maybe I could use a late night bear hug....”
Naturally he accommodated me, leaning in, and wrapping his arms around me. His warm, naked body felt wonderful, and so did his lips as they pressed up against my own, his tongue pushing sensually into my mouth, and my head spinning all the while.
Slowly, slowly, slowly he brought my body down to the floor of the tent, and he reached behind himself to zip it closed as he did so. After several more kisses on the mouth, each of which got my head spinning just the least bit more than the last, I pulled slightly away from him, gasping for breath.
“I really didn't mean to disturb you, you know,” I insisted, peering into his eyes. “I just wanted to see what you were up to out there. We came here so you could be free and get this out of your system for a while, you don't have to worry about me in here.”
“Oh, you aren't disturbing me, believe me. We've got the whole weekend to ourselves, after all, and I can always go back out later. Besides, now I have something else that I think I might need to get out of my system for a while....”
I couldn't help but let a smile spread out wide across my mouth.
He kissed me again, and slowly lured me back into my sleeping bag, this time with his body flush up against my own, and he zipped the two of us inside. It was a snug fit, but the intimacy we felt was beautiful and sweltering. I could feel his erect cock pushing up against the insides of my thighs, and I savored the touch of his hands as they slipped across my body, touching me all over, and slipping me out of my clothes.
Between the close confines of the sleeping bag and the efforts of our love, I was really beginning to sweat now, wet strands of hair plastered to my forehead, skin drenched, and every nerve in my body on fire, ready to be pushed past the point of no return.
Somehow - I don't know quite how, given how close the two of us were wrapped together at just that moment - Jason managed to creep down inside the sleeping bag, diving into its deepest reaches, in order to treat me to a bit more personal care with that special tongue of his. I braced myself, holding my breath as I felt his perfect skull slide up between my thighs. I loved the sound of squelching and twisting as he pushed his tongue up inside me, and he then proceeded to slide it sensually around the wet, floral perimeter of my twat. I gasped out in pleasure, my body on fire for him, and he began to work his head into a steady, rhythmic bob.
I don't know what it was, specifically, that made my love so skillful at eating pussy, but God was I grateful for the fact that he was, and in spite of myself I began to push my body forward into him, smothering him in my pelvis, letting my legs wrap around his head as though to trap him between my thighs indefinitely.
It might well have suffocated him, but he continued to devour me all the while, licking me up as though I was the most delectable thing he'd ever tasted, and as though he couldn't ever come close to getting enough of my delicate, tangy flesh.
Heat radiated up from inside the sleeping bag, filling my body from head to toe, and I felt as though I might dissolve outright into Jason's loving head, the two of us forever locked together in this way, never to be separated. I was really beginning to cringe with pleasure now, moans of delight stirring from deep, deep within me, and no matter how I might have tried, I simply couldn't seem to stop my head from spinning uncontrollably, making me dizzy with delight.
Sensations rippled through my body when he suddenly hit against an especially sensitive area, and reflexively I reached down into the sleeping bag, pushing his face even deeper between my open legs. I held my breath, and somehow he continued to find places inside me to thrill with the lap of his perfect tongue. I felt like crying with the joy, my nostrils flaring and my body on fire with need.
Jason, making the most of his position, continued to explore and experiment. He began to pinch the insides of my thighs, squeezing me tightly, in a manner that added to the sensitization of my pussy. My ass pushed upward from the bottom of the sleeping bag, smothering him more still inside me, and it was at this point that he slid one of his hands between my legs and contributed a welcome bit of manual stimulation to his efforts.
“Oh.... Oh God.... Fuck…. Yes, yes, yes….”
“My, someone needs to watch their language,” he said, pulling momentarily away from me, and even though I couldn't see him in the dark concealment of the sleeping bag, I knew there was a smirk on his stupid, beautiful face.
“Shut your lips and get them back on my pussy,” I said, half teasing, but also a little bit crazed and desperate. Thankfully, he did as requested, and once again I was left wheezing, pushing myself into him, riding him to the utmost heights of pleasure.
The return of his mouth to me was a sweet relief, and he managed to pick up right where he'd left off before my bout of profanity. “Ohhhhhhhh,” I sighed with relief, settling back into him. Then I flinched, pushing upward toward the top of the sleeping bag, pushing my entire body up this time instead of down.
“Oh…. Oh…. Oh…. Oh….” He'd really gotten me now.... He'd begun to push his fingers up inside me, and he was stroking my clitoris as his tongue continued to twist around inside me. This caused my body to fill up so thoroughly with sensations that I thought I might just burst.
I could have gone on like this for hours, although reasonably he would have had to come up for air every few minutes or so if that were the case. And hell, for all I knew in my stupefied haze of pleasure, maybe he did stay down there devouring me for hours, I couldn't honestly tell you. The moments seemed to stretch on endlessly, with waves of delight sweeping regularly through my system, crushing me with pleasure, and my body ready to go spiraling out of control at his touch at any given second.
At last, orgasm began to buzz through my pelvis, and it bled up through the rest of my system in turn, lighting up my nerve endings, in sweet, steady waves. Climax came, then slowly pushed back, and then came back harder than ever, and I realized, after a while, that it was all one steady ordeal of pleasure - a long, hot orgasm, one that seemed to last for several minutes, and that varied in its intensity and duration according to what was being done to me down there at that particular moment.
I wrapped a leg around Jason's perfect head as the last mammoth wave of delight swept through my body, and I gripped him fiercely. Somehow, I felt it possible that I might not survive this last wave of climax wholly intact, and my fingers sank so deep into his sweaty flesh that it might have been me who possessed bear claws. My eyes sprang open, and my entire body shook with pleasure, making me feel as though at any moment I might well lose control, and all I could do was lie there in wait, hoping that I could survive through to the other side.
At last, when I thought I could take no more, the sensations gradually began to ease inside me, and I let out an intense sigh of relief. Jason lingered between my thighs for several seconds, continuing to lick and to tease, and I appreciated the effort of his doing so a great deal - having him pull out immediately would have been entirely too sudden, and this helped me adjust back into a normal state of being.
Finally my nostrils flared, and I shook all over as Jason began to climb up along my body, emerging with his head sweaty and his muscular anatomy looking as splendid as ever.
I spread my legs further apart, and instantly felt the tip of his penis pushing between the lips of my pussy. It was his turn now, and I relaxed my body, easing him inside me. He savored the heat of my anatomy as he inserted himself, burying his tip in me, and then sliding his shaft all the way into me, inch by inch by agonizing inch of his immensity filling me up inside, until at last he touched down, and once again I was trembling with pleasure.
He waited for a moment before beginning, peering into my eyes from above. I swept away one of the wet strands of hair plastered to my forehead, and I smiled up at him, nostrils flaring. He smiled in return, and gradually, he began to thrust. He stroked tenderly, driving his long, stiff shaft into my deepest, wettest depths, and proceeding to clench and unclench his buttocks with the rhythm of his thrusts. I began to moan, heating up quickly after having just made it through a first round of mind-blowing pleasure, but all too ready for more.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, and twisted my legs around his thrusting ass as he pounded me delicately, his body moving in a steady, flowing rhythm in to my own. “Oh…. Oh.... Yes…. Yes…. Yes….” I loved the sound of his cock slipping wetly in and out of me, and the hot sensations of our fucking filled me to the brim, so that I once again pushed my pelvis deeper, deeper, and deeper into him, almost reflexively.
Harder, harder, harder he smashed me, and I was really beginning to cry out with pleasure now, dying with delight beneath him, our sweat-soaked bodies colliding loudly, the tent seeming to spin around my head as he pushed and pumped and thrusted and fucked.
“Oh God…. Oh God.... Oh GODDDDD!”
He heaved himself into me one final, beautiful time, and he held himself firmly in place. I didn't think it was possible, but the sensations of climax were already roaring back through my body, burning me to my core, and I could hardly see straight from the intensity as they shot through my body like a drug. Jason poured his molten, sticky essence into my body in long, hot streams, filling me up with himself, and setting me over the edge.
My nails sank deeper, deeper, deeper into his flesh, and I snorted and snarled like a bear myself, quivering from head to toe, until at last full release was achieved.
Both of us pulled apart, gasping, exhausted, but immediately laughing with pleasure at what the two of us had done to one another.
God, I thought, I was a lucky, lucky woman....
He pulled himself out of me and immediately pulled me back up against himself, squeezing my body tightly in his arms. He kissed me deeply, longingly, shoving his tongue as far into my mouth as he could manage, needing me now more than ever it seemed, and I, in turn, felt the same necessity for him in that moment.
Slowly, gradually, the two of us drifted off to sleep in one another's arms, and an intense, but unsatisfying, rest took me over.
2
This time, when I awoke, I was more confused than ever, my head disoriented, and my settings appearing strange and alien as I craned my head around the otherwise empty tent. This was strange…. How had I come to be abandoned, I wondered? Why was I here, all by myself, with no one else around?
Jason was no longer beside me inside the sleeping bag, and that in itself seemed especially peculiar. And what was more, I suddenly realized that it was freezing in here, my body still wet with perspiration but chilled, and I hugged my naked body tightly into myself, trying to warm myself up to some extent, but to no real avail.
I could hear voices, coming from outside the tent, and this further baffled me. I felt suddenly afraid, though I couldn't immediately identify the reason for my fear. You could call it a gut reaction, I suppose, and it turned out to be one with a reasonable foundation.
Fear gripped me, and I slowly moved up toward the flap of the tent, covering my tits with the sleeping bag as though to preserve my modesty from someone.
Through the fabric of the tent, lit up by firelight from the other side, I could see the silhouette of a man, presumably Jason. But across from him, on the other side, I thought I could see two other figures, men I couldn't come close to identifying, their voices fierce and aggressive, and their presence at the fireside seeming somehow wrong, dangerous....
I tried to listen more closely, to make out the words being exchanged between Jason and the newcomers.
“Leave us now…. The two of you have no business whatsoever. We've done you no harm, and there is no reason for you to harm us in turn,” Jason said. This sentence alone gave me goosebumps, but the response of one of the two men turned my blood cold as the words passed his lips.
“There needn't be any reason, other than the fact that you are a bear shifter, and our kinds have been mortal enemies since the beginning of time.... You come here, to our territory, intruding where you know you don't belong.... And what the hell else could you possibly expect?”
“I'm sorry, please.... I honestly had no idea that this was your territory….” There was a tinge of desperation in Jason's voice, as though he knew even as he spoke that this would get him nowhere. This, I felt, was a mistake, as it showed a distinct lack of confidence on his part, revealing his weakness in this most delicate of moments. “Please, just let us go, and we'll leave immediately. Next time, we'll be more careful.”
“I'm afraid there won't be a next time, my friend….”
And in that moment, everything changed.
There was a loud snarl, and I could see the two men lunging forward, changing in their silhouettes. Jason, too, changed, shifting into his form as a bear and letting out an immense, horrible roar. Shocked, I scrambled to unzip the flap to the tent, in spite of my own best interests, perhaps, but I simply couldn't avoid gazing upon the scene as it unfolded.
They were werewolves, the two strangers, two snarling canines attacking the man I loved, biting at his flanks, attempting to tackle him, to shove him down, to murder him….
I stood watching on edge, feeling powerless and frightened as hell, as bodies twisted, fangs snapped, claws sank into skin. I wanted to intervene so badly, to save the man I loved, but I knew that, if anything, I would be the one that needed saving.
I shrieked as one of the wolves bowled Jason over to the ground, pinning him there, and Jason, no matter how he struggled, seemed incapable of shaking the beast free.
Then, to make matters even worse, the other wolf, the one not presently on the attack, suddenly caught sight of my peeking out, and he immediately began to snarl in my direction. I gasped, and tried to zip myself back inside the tent, but of course, at this point, none of that would be of any use. I was defenseless, and I knew it, and the beast knew it….
He lunged toward me with murderous intent clear in his every movement, flanks strobing as he ran and fangs bared, jaws parting, as he readied himself to take a massive, lethal bite out of me.
But then a massive, deadly roar broke through the air, and once again the tables were turning.
Jason, seeing me in danger, had snapped. He was lifting the wolf on him into the air, hurling him against a tree, where his body seemed as though it actually snapped as it hit the wood surface. The second wolf paused, sensing this disturbance, but before he could react Jason had a hold of him sinking his teeth into the creature and hurling him into the fire.
I cried out, horrified, feeling bad for the creature despite knowing it had been about to murder me. Its coat crackled with flames, and it was left yelping wildly as it scrambled from the clearing, presumably in the direction of the stream. Its crippled partner ran off after it, hobbling and looking especially weak all the while.
I sat panting, eyes wide, breathing heavily for several minutes, my mind reeling as I struggled to even begin to process it all.
At last, I managed to get a hold of myself, and I turned brusquely to Jason, staring at him as though for an explanation, or some word of comfort to help me process all that had just unfolded before my stunned eyes. But of course, what the hell was he supposed to say?
His body shifted back into its human state, but the sight of him like this was scarcely any sort of relief. His naked anatomy was covered in blood, riddled with claw and teeth marks from head to toe, and I thought I might pass out from the look of him alone in that moment.
He gave me an intense, weary look, and somehow, without words having to pass between the two of us, I thought I had a fairly accurate notion of precisely what was going on in his mind at that moment.
3
We made it back to the city, for the most part, in one piece. I was understandably shaken by the entire episode, and it was honestly the first time it had really ever sank in for me how peculiar the situation I found myself in with Jason really was.
We spoke minimally of it for the first several days, but of course it swelled up massively beneath the surface, the elephant in the room no matter what else was going on. I helped treat Jason's wounds, though he had to go to the hospital to get a couple of the more severe ones stitched up properly. He gave the doctors some bullshit story about an ATV accident or something, although I'm sure they could tell quite plainly that they were teeth and claw marks slashed all across his skin.
An unmistakable distance began to grow between the two of us after that. He seemed less talkative, less enthusiastic about things. I could practically read his thoughts most days, and I knew exactly what was on his mind. But he seemed wholly unwilling to discuss things with me, on any level whatsoever. Any time I made the mistake of trying, he would get upset and storm off to another room to be away from me.
I could tell that I was losing him, and the worst part of it was the fact that there seemed to be absolutely nothing I could do about it.
And then one day, he was gone, without a trace. Not a word, except in the form of a note he left me, detailing what I already knew to be the truth:
“I'm sorry. I had to go. I sincerely believe that you're the love of my life, but I don't believe for a second that the lives we tried to share will ever be compatible with one another. That's completely my fault, and I have to accept that. Some things just aren't meant to be. I put you in danger out there because of who I was, after you'd come to accept and trust me. And there is no excuse for that. I'm not going to allow it to happen again. I couldn't live with myself if something ever happened to you because of something I did, and as much as it hurts me I know that I have to do the right thing and let you move on with your life. There's no point in pretending things can go any other way. I hope you find someone better who can make you happy in life, and that you'll forgive me for everything. Yours always, - Jason.”
As easily as that, he was gone from my life.
An unbearable loss, indeed....
I cried for several days straight after receiving his message, scarcely doing anything else at all. Lying around listening to music, watching garbage on TV to help pass the hours, calling off of work and using up all my sick days in the process.
Only gradually did I manage to dig my way back out of all that.
Still, though, once I did manage to continue with my life to some extent, the memories didn't stop tumbling back around in my head, cropping up at all the wrong times, and robbing me of any sort of peace of mind.
I'd really loved him, and the fact that he was now gone, without even talking things over with me or trying to help me come to terms with it.... Well, it was torture on many levels. I felt completely abandoned, unable to escape the memories made by the two of us during our time spent together.
I would have to try, though. That much I knew. I needed to move on, to look forward in my life instead of backward. I was young, attractive, but I wasn't getting any younger.
I had to get myself back out there.
I started going on dates, although my heart was only ever half into them, if even that much. The men I met were, I suppose, more or less okay. Nothing special, though, and nothing, I could always tell, that would even come close to comparing with that which I had shared with Jason.
There were ups and downs to this, of course. Some men, it was plainly evident from the very first meeting, from the looks in their eyes, had only sex on their minds, and had no greater intention for meeting me than that. Sometimes, I would even oblige them this, not caring, and thinking that maybe intimacy would get me a little bit closer to where I'd been before meeting Jason.
But it was the never the same as with Jason. No one could make me lightheaded with their love as he did. No one could make me dizzy, make me beg for more even as my entire body shook with my inability to stand such sweet, decadent pleasure.
None of it was the same as it had been with Jason, and it seemed so impossible for me to come to terms with that fact.
I eventually started seeing someone more regularly, though it was less because I felt any sort of genuine attraction to him, and more that I simply got tired of jumping from one bed to the next every night. Maybe some stability, I thought, would help me forget about Jason, and the life we might have had together, but no more.
Eric was a nice enough guy. At any rate, he was a far better partner than most of the other men I let myself stoop to in my time of need. He treated me with respect and seemed to genuinely care about me, and I tried to do so in return. But I just couldn't see him as anything more than the replacement he was, and no matter how I might have tried, thoughts of what I was missing out on continued to haunt me despite my best efforts.
I just couldn't deny it any longer... I missed Jason, and no one in the world but the man himself could fill the hole in my life he'd left in his wake upon leaving.
I didn't know what to do...
I felt like shit for leaving Eric when he'd been so caring and decent to me, but I knew there was nothing there, really. I would just be entangling myself in something without real substance, and I knew full well that it wasn't worth continuing.
I tried to let him down gently, and I could see the heartbreak in his eyes when I broke the news. But, like he'd been all throughout the course of our brief fling, he'd been very patient and understanding and the two of us went our separate ways without any indignity or protest on his part.
There was only one man I truly loved, and I wasn't going to let him slip away from my life as he had without at least putting up some semblance of an effort at winning him back.
In truth, I had no real idea where he'd gone, or at least not on any concrete terms. His disappearance had been random and unannounced, without warning even though the signs had been there for days by that point. Still, though, it wasn't especially difficult to make a few educated guesses as to his whereabouts, and though seeking him out may have presented its share of dangers and challenges, there was no doubt in my mind as to the fact that that was what I needed to do.
I would be lying shamelessly if I told you the prospect of returning to those woods wasn't an intimidating one for me, particularly after what had happened last time, with those two vicious werewolves, and the near fatal end I'd met at their hands.
This time, too, I would be without Jason to protect me should the enemy make it to me before I made it to him. I wished I had some means of protection, a gun or something, to keep me safe. But I didn't own one, didn't know anyone who owned one, and honestly wasn't sure that I felt like carrying one at any rate. My only weapon, then, was a canister of mace that I routinely employed in the city, which I knew would scarcely do me much good in the face of such fierce predators, but it was really all I could think to come equipped with.
I twisted my way through the forest, shaking slightly, not sure what I would find, and not convinced I would be ready for what I found either way when the moment came. Hell, even if I did find Jason, there was just as much chance that he would turn me away from the get-go, spurning my advances, and telling me what I already knew - that it couldn't possibly work out between the two of us, and that I'd wasted my time trying to come here and find him.
But I had to try.... I had no other choice but to do so, or else I would live with the uncertainty looming over me for the rest of my life.
A chilly wind blew through the trees as I went along, goosebumps prickling across my skin as I hugged my body for warmth.
There was no sign of him anywhere, or of anyone for that matter. I kept thinking I was getting myself more and more hopelessly lost and every snapping of twigs or crackle of leaves had me jumping out of my skin. I felt certain that an ambush awaited me around every bend in the road, and that at any moment the wolves from the camping trip would be on me, tearing me to bits, cutting my mission short in its tracks.
Suddenly, then, I found myself gasping.
He appeared out of nowhere, without warning, his big, furry bear self-emerging into the clearing. My heart seemed to skip a beat, and for a moment I second guessed whether or not it was actually him. What if this was just a regular, run of the mill bear, upon whom I'd intruded, and who seemed poised to attack at a moment's notice?
But then, his body shifted, and a human took his place - the very human for whom I'd been looking.
It was Jason, naked, and as devilishly handsome as ever. More so, perhaps, since his sequestering in the forest, given the mask of stubble now decorating his chin. And hell, it probably didn't hurt that this was the first I'd seen of him in weeks, so any sight of him at all was enough to make me swell up inside with desire.
“Jason….” I said, hopefully.
“You shouldn't be here,” he said, in even tones, but his voice was so flat that it almost made the impact worse.
I swallowed hard, blinking back tears, and tried to compose my thoughts. “I can't....” I said, not sure what I was trying to say. But I continued, “I can't be without you…. I just can't do it…. I tried, I really did. But I can't stay away…. You've been on my mind, all this time, and no matter what I try to do, I just can't get you out of my mind. I need you, Jason....”
“I'm sorry…. I really am....” he said, clearly not swayed in the least. “But you know that things can't possibly work between us…. I wish so much that it was different, but you've seen the danger yourself. I put you in that situation, I risked your life for my own selfish purposes, and I just can't live with that.”
“No,” I insisted, “No, Jason.... I'm a fully grown adult, and I knew that there were risks involved in us being together. I still know that, and I'm not fooling myself about it. But you need to respect me enough to let me decide whether or not to take those risks. And the truth is that I love you too much to let them stand in the way. I'm sorry, but that's just how it is…. And you can accept that or not, but that's where I stand. And I'm not going to let things between us end that easily without at least some sort of effort on my part.”
I was shaking by the time I finished my speech, and Jason was staring at me, nostrils flaring, clearly conflicted. I stared, long and hard into his eyes, steeling his gaze, and captivating him. I could see him, down below, growing aroused for me the longer we looked at one another, so that his intentions, his unmistakable desire for me, could not be ignored. A smile began to spread across my lips, and I could tell by the look on his face in that fraction of a second that I'd defeated him.
And suddenly, out of nowhere, we were flying to one another. Our mouths collided, and we began to kiss passionately, our tongues immediately beginning to gouge one another's cheeks, his hands on my body, pulling me deep into himself.
I loved the heat of his masculinity pressing up against me in his desperation, and I wrapped my hand around him, eager as hell to please him, stroking him longingly, craving him inside me, and savoring the sweet taste of his lips as the two of us kissed, long, hard, and slow.
He began to undress me, almost violently pulling me out of my clothes, desperate as he was for things between the two of us to begin getting underway. I moaned, and whimpered, with pleasure as his hands slid all over me, article after article of my clothing being cast aside so easily, the straps of my bra being slid from my shoulders, my breasts exposed, my panties melting down to around my ankles, leaving me exposed and vulnerable.
I suddenly felt very self-conscious, as though everyone in the world could see my nudity and was judging me for my actions, even if, realistically, I knew the two of us were alone here. At any rate, he pulled me out of it easily enough, pressing his naked body up against my own so tightly that the two of us might have melted together, and thoughts of shame or decency went spinning off into nowhere.
We were animals, pure and simple, animals in our natural environment, doing what animals do, and loving every damn minute of it along the way.
He ravished my flesh, squeezing my breasts and suckling on my nipples, playing with my pussy all the while as I stroked the skin of his erect penis in my capable hands.
We kissed, and licked, and devoured one another, the heat between the two of us scorching, dizzying, and so perfect in every way that I could hardly believe it was true.
God, how I had missed this…. All of it…. His touch, his scent, his sheer, tender ferocity.
He pushed my body up against a tree, and I bent over for him, arching my spine and angling my body in just such a way that I knew it would be sure to agonize him. He leaned in over me, his cock cradled between my buttocks, and ran kisses along my splayed back, filling me with sensation, making me so hot, so wet that I couldn't stand it.
Finally, though, he reared back, mounting me from behind. He shoved his engorged purple tip through the moist lips of my femininity, and pushed himself inside, his member larger than I remembered it, filling me up to capacity, and sending such a dizzying swirl of sensations through my body that I actually shrieked with pleasure.
He began, very slowly, to thrust. It was so soft, so tentative at first as he churned me up inside, as though after having been away for so long he needed to make sure he still knew me like He remembered me. The tenderness, somehow, caused me to burn with an intense friction, and it only grew hotter and hotter as he progressed, driving me wild with desire, and bringing a series of tortured moans up deep from inside me.
Faster, faster, faster he pounded me, wrapping one leg around me and heaving his cock hard up inside me. Drilling me, jackhammering, fucking with a loving desperation, roaring as he annihilated me, and I shrieked, cried, moaned with pleasure all the while, unable to get enough, sweat rolling down along my body, and my head spinning, spinning, spinning….
“Oh God.... Oh God…. Oh fuck.... Yes.... Yes…. Yes….”
With a last, decisive blow, he heaved his way up inside me, and held himself pressed firmly there, my flesh squeezed beneath his weight, tension mounting, then bursting, and then every nerve in my body flashing into dangerous, orgasmic territory.
He filled me up with himself, coating me, after so long, with his perfect essence, pulse after pulse of himself drenching me and setting me over the edge in his abundance. A climax of the sort that I'd been missing for so long filled me up, driving me insane with pleasure as it vibrated through my system. Every muscle tensed, toes curled, hairs stood on end as that climax for the ages raced through my anatomy, and at last, at long, long last, I felt myself drifting back down to Earth.
He gripped me tightly in his arms, kissing me passionately, tenderly, ravishing me with his love, and our sweaty, naked bodies feeling as though they fit perfectly together in every way.
It was impossible to say precisely what challenges lay ahead, but I was confident that, as long as I faced them with him by my side, there was nothing that the two of us couldn't make it through together.