Chapter Five
The sun had yet to rise over the park when Jenny awoke with a burning desire to run. Run as fast and far as she could. As she had never been a runner nor had any interest in the activity, her need to do so shocked her. She eased out from under the covers so she wouldn’t wake Lars but sat on the edge, fighting the urge to ask him to join her.
Memories of the evening before lay hazy in her brain. Some moments came to the front like vivid mini movies, and others remained in cavernous pits in her brain. Memories of his lovemaking heated her flesh even now.
“Good morning.” His husky voice washed over her, easing a tightness inside her. He touched her shoulder and followed it with a kiss. “How are you feeling?”
“Claustrophobic?” It didn’t seem the correct term but close enough to get her point across. “I need space—movement.”
He froze behind her. “Space from me?”
“No, this cabin. I need fresh air.”
“Then let’s get out of here.” He opened the drawers and pulled on running pants and a T-shirt. He grabbed a bag from the table and placed it next to her. “Quinn sent over some clothes for you. She wanted you to be comfortable this morning.”
“Very thoughtful of her, but how would she know where to find me?”
“I might have called the bear healer in a panic when you were at the worst of it last night.”
“I don’t remember much past us making love. Beyond sex, it’s pretty hazy.” Inside the bag lay some running shoes, sweatpants, and a T-shirt from the gift shop printed in big block letters I heart bears.
“Absolutely not.” He threw a plain white T-shirt at her.
She giggled as she put it on. “Is this normal, this need to run after you mate?”
“Are you asking as in did I need to after my first mating?”
She didn’t know what she meant, but if they didn’t get out soon, she would pull off her skin. “I guess.”
“I don’t remember.” Then, as if reconsidering his answer, he said, “It was a long time ago. And we had known each other our whole lives. But if my mate needs to run, then I will run with her.”
“I hate running,” she said as they exited the cabin and started to stretch.
“Then why are we out here instead of in there making love again?”
“I feel if I don’t run, I will go insane. Something inside needs to be set free.”
He paused, bent at the waist, one leg straight out behind him. “What needs to be set free?”
She didn’t know, but her skin itched, almost as if it were too tight. One second she stood on the porch, the next she ran for her life through the dark forest. She sensed him hot on her heels, but she didn’t stop. In the predawn darkness, she should have been struggling to see the trees coming up on her, or stumps, or even the rocks, but she could sense the objects before she came across them.
When she came out into the opening and the moon shone down on her, a burn took over. She turned to Lars, confused and frightened. “What is happening to me?”
“You’re shifting.” He cocked his head. “Relax and let it happen.”
He stood before her, and the glow covered him before he shifted into a large bull with huge antlers. He raised his head and called out to the night.
At the call, she doubled over, fighting the need to drop to her knees. He called again, and she fell to the ground, and with the third call, she opened her eyes to see it through an elk’s viewpoint. Her mate grunted, and she ran, not out of fear or panic, but because she could. Free for the first time in her life.
On the top of a hill, as the sun crested over the landscape, the human in her forced its way back out. On weak knees, she stumbled. But her mate remained in elk form. Standing proud and strong. She waited, and he came to her. Magnificent didn’t start to describe him in this form. “Can you understand me?”
He nodded, dropping into the tall grass. She sat next to him with her back against his muscular trunk. She had so many questions, but they had plenty of time to deal with her issues. But as she lay, watching the dark sky above her head transform its morning light from pink to light blue, peace covered her. The part of her she had been searching for came to the surface, making her whole, body and soul.
A flash of light from the corner of her eye had her sitting up. Lars got to his feet before she could make out what happened. He ran full speed towards the light. An earth-shattering bang broke the silence of the morning. Birds squawked and flew in all directions. She realized she had seen the light reflecting off the scope of a gun. The second shot rang out, and Lars faltered but still ran. The hunter moved into the opening. As he leveled a rifle, a gigantic grizzly bear rose to his full height behind the hunter. She knew without being told the beast had to be Brutus. She turned away, covering her ears against the screams she couldn’t block out.
Screams turned to deafening silence and fear of what she would find when she opened her eyes. A hand touched her back, and she flinched. “Jenny.”
Her head shot up, and she found her mate standing over her, concern etched into his handsome face. She threw herself into his arms. “You’re okay?”
“Relatively,” he assured, but she sensed something in his forced word.
Stepping back, she noticed his white shirt turning red above his hip. “You’re shot.”
“Grazed,” he said, but a second later stumbled and fell to the ground.
“Help us,” she yelled to the hills, knowing at least one bear had to be within shouting distance. She ripped at his shift-shirt, pulling it over his head and pressing it against the bleeding wound. “Why the hell was he shooting at you?”
“He liked my rack.”
“You aren’t funny.”
“Not trying to be. I think we found our hunter.” He closed his eyes and grunted as she pressed harder against his wound.
Two bears dashed their way at full speed. She should have been concerned or had a sense of self-preservation. If these were real bears, not shifters, she and Lars would be in a great deal of trouble. Ten feet from them, the two bears shifted. Brutus and a beautiful tanned woman with gray braids approached. Crossing his arms over his chest, Brutus tsked. “Lars, I have told you a million times, zig and zag, not zag and zig. Amateur.”
“Do shut up, laughing makes it worse,” Lars coughed between laughs.
“Both of you shut up.” The woman put out a hand. “Brutus, your shirt.”
Without question, he stripped off his flannel shirt and handed it over. Brutus turned his attention to her. “Are you all right?”
“As well as can be expected.”
“Jenny, I need you to release the pressure long enough for me to tie this around his waist.” The older woman worked fast, and before she knew it, the healer had Lars wrapped up. Brutus lifted him and headed for the tree line. “Can you walk, Jenny?”
“I wasn’t shot.”
“No, but you ran like you never have, and your muscles aren’t used to the shift.” The other woman offered her a hand. “My name is Shauna. I am the bear healer. You make a magnificent deer.”
“You saw?”
“When I checked on you last night, I sensed something deep within you had been awakened.” They reached the woods where an all-terrain vehicle waited for them. Lars lay in the back. Brutus sat next to him. “You take the front, I can ride on the side.”
She offered a weak smile to the driver who from his size and beard had to be one of Brutus’ people. Shauna tapped the top, and the ATV took off. She hadn’t realized how far they had run until they made the drive back.
Brutus took Lars into the cabin, followed by Shauna, leaving Jenny outside, staring at the cabin and wondering how much had changed in the last few hours.
“Is it true?” The woman who had attacked her on the commons the week before met them at the door.
“Lars will be fine,” a tall svelte blonde woman said.
“Not Lars. Her.” She pointed at Jenny.
The driver stood and growled.
“I’m fine. Let me handle this. Bear brute strength isn’t going to help me with Lars’ people.” She placed a hand on the large man’s chest. He grunted but acquiesced to her request. She turned her attention to the forming crowd. “What about me?”
“Did you shift?” the woman demanded.
“She did,” Shauna said from the doorway, wiping her hands. “She was amazing. Even as a bear, I could see that. Now your alpha has requested his mate, so you can all Kumbaya another time.”
“Thank you, Shauna,” Jenny said as they entered the cabin.
“I knew what you were even if Lars didn’t believe me. Brutus and I went out earlier this morning and saw the whole thing. We were close when the shot rang out. We followed at a distance because I suspected your legs wouldn’t hold out for the walk back.”
“Come on, Shauna. Let’s leave them alone. There is plenty of time to let everyone know you are brilliant later.” Brutus offered her a wink and pulled his healer out of the cabin with him. “Lars, I’m dealing with the hunters and I’ll catch up with you later.”
She turned to find Lars staring at her from the bed. They had propped him up with every pillow in the cabin, but at least the bandage around his waist remained white. “After a day’s rest, I’ll be back on my feet again.”
“You shouldn’t have charged them.”
“I didn’t have any choice. I knew Brutus was out there somewhere, but my only thought was what if they had shot you.”
“Why would they have shot me?” The hunters were after game not humans.
“It’s possible the hunter saw you shift.”
“Is that why you didn’t shift with me?”
“I sensed humans in the area. I couldn’t chance it. I suspected if they had seen you, they would have come to investigate. But when they didn’t, I figured they were just hikers out for an early morning stroll.” He tapped the bed beside him. “I would heal better with you next to me.”
“I thought I’d lost you.”
“Believe me, you would know.” His voice held a world of pain. “When your mate dies, you know it to your core. There is no question.”
“You think it makes it any easier to have witnessed you being shot. Shot! And you still ran toward the gun.” She stalked to the bed but didn’t make a move to get in with him. “I finally accepted I love a man who is more than a man. I realized with you I feel I belong. It’s why I decided to mate with you last night. Not because we couldn’t fight the attraction, but because with you I felt complete.”
“Jenny.”
“No. I need you to understand. I might have to accept that as an alpha you might find yourself in danger, but I never have to like it. I never have to accept you might be hurt.”
“You’re right you don’t have to accept it. I know I wouldn’t. Please sit down so I can touch you.”
Not happy she couldn’t vent her spleen a bit more, she plopped down. After all, he had been shot, and the least she could do was nurse him back to health so she could chastise him later.
He pulled her into his embrace and kissed the top of her head. “See, that wasn’t so hard.”
“Which part?”
“The holding your tongue until later part.”
“How did…?”
“Shhh. Injured. Yell at me later.”
She listened to his heart’s steady beats. “Perhaps we should discuss my hidden ability to turn into an elk.”
“I told you. You’re perfect for me.”
“How is my shifting even possible?” She still couldn’t wrap her mind around it.
“You’re asking the wrong person. But my guess is a shifter lurks somewhere in your family tree. Over the years, the shifter gene became dormant.”
“But when we mated, it awakened?”
“It makes sense. But perhaps Shauna has an idea as well.” They lay quietly for a while before he continued, “You said your mother didn’t feel a part of your life?”
“Disconnected.”
“Elk females rule the herds.” He grunted, repositioning himself against the pillows. “I’m the alpha, but the females are in charge. It’s possible the gene is from your mother. And, like you, she believed something had to be wrong with her. She ran, but unlike you, her elk never came out. The feeling of the walls coming in around her wasn’t you and your father, but an inability to know her true self.”
“I guess.”
“You have a large family now.”
“They won’t accept me.”
“Why?” His voice slowed as his lids closed.
“Because they’re appalled.”
“They are shocked, but they’ll accept you.” He yawned. “I need to sleep. Don’t be surprised if you wake up alone.”
“Alone?”
“I need to be in elk form to fully heal.”
“Then why are we in here in human form?”
“Because I don’t have the energy to shift yet. After I rest, I can shift and then heal.” His words slurred as he faded off to sleep.
Her questions, comments, and anger could all wait.
He never awoke for the rest of the day. Although Shauna came by to check his wound, he remained in restless slumber. Jenny watched over him until the sun set and the need to sleep overcame her.
Morning rays woke her. Reaching for her mate, she found him gone. The sheets next to her were cold. Ignoring her protesting muscles, she crawled out of bed. After a quick shower, she put on her ranger uniform. For the first time, she didn’t want to go to work, but she didn’t have a great deal of choice. None of the people hanging around the night before remained in sight. As she made her way to the ranger station, she passed the elk lying on the grassy commons. She stopped. Lars, in elk form, slept in the center. The females who surrounded him dropped their heads as she approached.
“He’s fine but thought if he had to rest, why not do it where you could watch over him,” Erin said approaching her dressed in shorts and a Grand Teton T-shirt looking like any other tourist in the area.
“Thank you.”
“The herd would like to welcome you tonight. But if you would prefer to be alone with your mate, we understand.”
“Welcome me?”
“Yes. I know you have some reservations about us, as did some of the females about you, but I promise all any of us want is our alpha happy. A happy alpha is better able to take care of his people.”
Lars lifted his head before lowering it again, almost as if drugged. “Is he okay?”
“We get groggy when we heal. He’ll go into a deep sleep for a couple of hours and wake up sore but healed.” Erin stepped to the side as Jenny dealt with a group of teens more interested in selfies than safety.
The other woman waited on the sidelines throughout the day.
“You don’t have to watch over me,” Jenny said.
“I wasn’t. You are more than capable of taking care of yourself. I thought you might have questions or need someone to talk to.”
“I appreciate it. Really I do. I think I’m just overwhelmed at the moment.”
“Would you prefer we postpone tonight’s celebration? I know you probably want some alone time with Lars.”
“I can’t imagine he’ll be up to anything physical.”
“I can guarantee he’ll be up for something with you.” Erin bumped her with her shoulder.
“I didn’t mean it that way.” Jenny blushed but laughed along with the other woman. “If you have already gone to any trouble, tonight will be fine.”
“Get it out of the way, too?”
“Perhaps.”
“All four herds will be present, and we have invited the grizzlies.”
“Really?”
“They promised to eat before they arrived.”
“Very considerate of them.”
“I think Quinn is worried about you.”
“I think if I had known Brutus was a bear, I would have been concerned about her, too.”
Although Jenny knew she could approach the herd, and every part of her wanted to go up to Lars, she would send the wrong signals to visitors, and she didn’t need questions from rangers. A couple of days into this world and she already knew the gauntlet she had to run to keep everyone safe.
Morning turned to afternoon, and as her shift ended, Lars stood and staggered off the common and up the hill. He stopped to glance at her once before leaving with the herd following.
Her shift finally ended and by the time she went home, changed, and packed a bag. Lars waited for her outside her dorm. “You are beautiful.”
She ran to him, pulled his face to hers, and kissed him hard. “All better?”
“Well enough to take care of the raging needs coming off my mate in waves.” He lifted the bag from her shoulder. “We’ll have to discuss living arrangements.”
“What is wrong with the cabin?”
“Nothing, if it’s where you want to be.”
“The cabin works for me.” She’d never needed a big house or material things.
“When is your next day off?”
“Thursday.”
“We’ll move you in, then. We can head into town and get things to make the cabin more homey.”
“The only thing I need to make anything more homey is you. Besides, once I am more in tune with my other side, we can sleep out under the stars more often.”
“I can’t wait. But, for the time being, we should stay inside. We think we captured all the hunters, but we can’t be sure. Until we are, the herd is still confined to buildings at night.”
“What happened to the man who shot you?”
“His body has been discovered outside the park.”
“He’s dead.”
He nodded. “Had I gotten to him first, I would have gored him through the heart. I might not like hunting, but I understand the need for it. This is neither hunting season nor a place where it is ever legal. Everything aside, he had my mate in his scope.”
“I worry about repercussions for the park.”
“There will be none. The wolves found his companions with guns inside the park. The bears helped escort them to the local authorities.”
As they came within a couple of hundred yards of the cabins, the music and laughter of a giant party could be heard. She paused and gripped his shirt for dear life. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this.”
“Ready for what?” He glanced at her, one eyebrow raised.
“Ready to meet your people, to deal with the scrutiny.”
“First, they are our people. Second, I think you’ll find less scrutiny than you think.”
“Erin said the very thing.”
“She is my strongest beta. I’d believe her. You are stronger than you think. And you know them. Maybe you don’t know them in their human forms, but you have watched over their elk forms, over their young, for two seasons. They adore you already.”
She didn’t want to get into this again. She already knew some were not happy, but she had strength enough to deal with them. Growing up, it had been her and her father. She had few friends, and it wasn’t until she started working for the Department of Forestry she found those likeminded people who understood her. Now she had a group who she belonged to. She had no control over whether they accepted her or not.
Erin stepped forward, hugged Jenny, and took the bag Lars carried. “She is making the point that although she is top beta, you are the alpha’s mate,” he murmured.
The girl who had shown no liking for her came forward, her head slightly lowered. “Alpha.”
“Amanda.”
“I came to apologize to you, Jenny,” she said, her voice low and shaky. “I shouldn’t have attacked you. I’ll admit I was jealous, but whatever the fates declare for our alpha, I must accept. And I should have had faith in him. When you shifted yesterday, I knew how wrong I had been.” The woman trembled. “If you ask me to leave the park, I’ll be gone in the morning.”
“Leave the park?”
Lars rested a hand on the small of her back. “As my mate, you decide who stays, who joins the herd, and the punishments for those who act against the herd.”
“But you are alpha.”
“I am, but elk are run by the women. We understand the true power is in those who create life. My job is to protect and govern, but it is yours to make sure the herd is taken care of.”
“Of course you can stay, Amanda,” Jenny said, because why wouldn’t she? But she and Lars would have to have a long discussion about what other jobs were hers.
She met more people than she could remember, had a long chat with Quinn and Shauna, and realized although she and Quinn were both mated to shifters, their situations couldn’t be more different. She didn’t broach the fact she could shift with her friend but assumed her husband had mentioned it. Perhaps one day she would feel in a better place to discuss it openly, but she needed more time to come to terms with her changes herself.
Two hours later, Lars signaled her to join him in the cabin. “Are you all right?” she asked, pulling up his shirttails to examine his wound.
He stilled her hands. “I’m fine, but it’s time for me to be with my bride.”
“Oh?”
“Our mating night was cut short by your inner beast finding itself. The next morning, the hunter had me in his scope, and tonight there were too many people vying for your attention, when all I wanted to do was to throw you over my shoulder and have my way with you in here.”
“I wish you had.”
Clothes fell to the floor as each of them fought the other to get to buttons and zippers first. When they were gloriously naked, he lifted her into his arms and eased her down onto his erection. No need to ask if she was ready; with their link now complete, if one had a need, so did the other. One ready to mate, the other couldn’t wait. He walked them to the bed. “Bottom or top?”
“Top,” she panted, holding on as he lowered her to the bed. He lay beneath her and gasped as he brought her down deep and hard onto his cock. The friction against her clit heightened her need but didn’t offer enough to bring her to satisfaction. He took one of her breasts into his mouth, sucking until she believed she would lose her mind. He repeated the action on the other and, as she threw back her head in pleasure, he gripped her hips hard.
The pressure increased as he forced her to take more of him and brought her to the brink. He pressed harder and deeper until she whimpered. She may be on top, but he held the reins. “Tell me what you want.”
“You,” she managed through gritted teeth, fighting him for control.
“You have me. Tell me what you need.”
“I need to come,” she demanded.
Gripping her hair, he brought her lips to his and kissed her hard and demanding. His hips tilted, and he hit the right spot but pulled away too quickly for her to take her pleasure. He repeated the action, over and over, until she thought she would lose her mind. Then he lifted her face away from his, met her eyes, and took one last thrust. They both crested together, eyes locked, until the pleasure became too great.
They shook and came down from their orgasms. Lying in bed at his side, she knew they would be locked forever in each other’s arms. She belonged where she hadn’t before, and he would always understand her. She had the large family she’d always wanted, and this man, this alpha would see to her every need while she saw to his.
They would figure out life hand in hand. But life could wait. For now, all she wanted was to sleep, his heart beating in perfect time with hers.
The End