Chapter 4
Alicia woke to the smell of coffee and a cold spot in the bed next to her. Cracking open her eyes she noticed that is was still daylight.
“Good morning, sleepyhead. Sleep well? It’s time to wake up. You don’t want to waste all day in bed again, do you? And I have something to show you.”
She sat up and zoned in to the cup of coffee next to the bed. It was accompanied by a plate of warm croissants, with butter and jam on the side. She suddenly realized she was ravenous, and, after taking a sip of the liquid ambrosia, made short work of the food.
“So, what do you mean again? I only slept an hour or so.”
Lionel laughed, tilting his head up, his whole body heaving with mirth.
“No, kitty cat. You slept through the rest of yesterday and last night. It’s morning.”
Alicia could only stare at the laughing man. “Yep,” he continued, “that’s what happens when you meet your mate, my beautiful girl. You took in my essence, joined with me, in fact. We are one now, and every male of our kind will know you are marked, that you are mine and belong to me. Now come on, get dressed, before your mind takes over and you think up more arguments. I need to show you something outside, so put on some warm boots and a warm jacket. You might not feel the cold as intensely as you did before, but I prefer you to take precautions, okay?”
Alicia scrambled up, pulling the sheet around her naked body, and ran to the bathroom, his laugh following her at her attempt at modesty. After a quick shower, she peeked around the corner but Lionel had left, some of her clothing on the bed waiting for her. She dressed, forcing herself not to think on what had been said or what had happened, knowing only that in some strange way, Lionel was right. She truly felt as if she belonged with the big man. Why, she had no idea, yet being around him, with him, near him, just seemed so perfectly right, as if it was something that she had known her whole life was meant to be: a man to whom she could belong and who, in turn, would belong to her, at a deep, primal level.
She found Lionel downstairs, his voice drifting through from the kitchen. She made her way there, careful to keep her steps quiet.
“…and I dinna care what ye have to say ‘bout it laddie, but your scent is all over that poor wee bairn and ye dinnae give her a chance to fall fer ye even! Would be ashamed of ye that ye mother would be if she was home, it would! Yer just a big lumberin’ oaf, that ye are! Shamelessly takin’ advantage like that!”
“I didn’t have time to show her before we… Well it sort of just happened! It’s not as if I intended to sleep with her like that yet! I just couldn’t help myself! I’ll make it up to her, I swear!”
“Och, if ye weren’t such a big lumbering oaf I’d box yer ears, I would!”
“Give the man some peace, woman! He said he was sorry! Besides, you know how it is when you fall in love!”
“Aye, that I know all too well,” her voice seemed to soften as she spoke.
‘You can come inside, Alicia. I can feel you, you know.’
“What the fuck just happened? I heard you in my head?” Alicia was shocked, and Lionel laughed again.
“Yes. We are one now. You can talk to me as well, kitty cat. But that is neither here nor there. Come on!” Lionel was excited, like a young child, and Alicia could not resist taking the hand he held out to her. “We are going for a walk into the woods. I want to show you what I am, so don’t you freak out on me, okay? I won’t hurt you! Now, no talking, no questions, let’s go.”
Alicia stood back and sketched a mock bow, showing with her hand that he should precede her out the door. Not being able to help herself, she took a good look at his backside. Nice.
‘I heard that! Glad you approve!’
Her crimson blush drew a snigger from him. She kept her mouth shut and a grip on her thoughts, keeping them occupied with the surroundings and the view. They trudged along side by side and hand in hand, Alicia struggling to keep up with his long gait until he finally relented and walked slower to allow her to keep up without winding herself.
“I think this is far enough, kitty cat. Now, go sit on that boulder over there and look at me.”
Shrugging, Alicia acquiesced to his request and made herself as comfortable as she could on the hard, cold stone.
“Now, please, don’t get scared! I won’t hurt you.” He began undressing, giving her the opportunity to drool over his body as he took off one item of clothing after another. The surprise striptease was hot, she had to admit, and wondered whether it was why men frequented that kind of establishment, but kept her own council.
Standing naked in front of her, he captured her gaze with his once more.
“Watch me, Alicia.”
His body became blurred, shimmering, growing in bulk and size in front of her disbelieving stare, until, once the blurring stopped, she was face to face with an enormous black bear, standing on its hind legs, watching her intently. Alicia struggled to swallow down the knot that had formed in her throat and tried moving backwards, but the boulder on which she sat would not allow her any further movement. The bear went down on all fours and came closer.
‘Be calm, kitty cat. It is only me. I won’t hurt you.’
Lionel’s deep, rich voice was in her head once more, and, looking closely, she saw his icy blue eyes staring at her from the hairy face of the creature.
“Lionel?”
The bear nodded its head and huffed, coming closer still.
“Is it really you?”
The bear sat in front of her and nudged at her with its head, as if encouraging her to touch it. She put out a hand tentatively, and lay it on the huge head of the beast. He closed his eyes and sighed, as if in contentment. Growing bolder, she scratched at its head, her reward for this was the huge creature turning on its back with its paws in the air as if he were a puppy with an itch. Her hands dug into the fur and she started petting him, as she had her cat as a child, tickling and scratching. The bear, it seemed, loved her touch, if his huffs were anything to go by.
‘See? I’m just a huge, overgrown teddy bear! No threat to you at all! But this is what I am, Alicia, besides a man. I am a shifter. Do I frighten you, disgust you?”
‘No, not at all!’ Alicia smiled. “No, not at all! You are so soft, and, well, cuddly!”
‘I heard you in my head, woman. We can speak like that now, you know, telepathically. We are joined, we are one. Mates!”
Suddenly, the blurring began again, this time with a little less shimmer, and Lionel lay on the snow at her feet, laughing up at her, her hands placed squarely on his chest. He took up a handful of snow and shoved it down her top, laughing as she jumped and started fishing it out.
“Still ogling me, woman?”
“Argh! Why did you do that?”
“A guy has to do something to get his woman’s attention, doesn’t he?”
“As if turning into a huge bear won’t do it? And I am not your woman!”
Jumping up, he grabbed her and held her against him. “Are you not? You know you are, don’t deny it! You feel it in every pore! You are mine, as I am yours. We cannot fight it, even if we tried. It is written in our very genes!”
“Then why is my birth mother not one of you?”
“You mean one of us! And there are very few women born of our blood. We are human, with a few chromosomal changes. We are both: animal and human. It’s the best way I have of explaining it. We can have children with humans, and the children will be able to change. Our genes are dominant. However, when we mate, it is for life, and no other will do, ever. You, my dear one, are stuck with me until the day we die.”
“Pffft, you are full of it!”
“Yes, I am, thank you for noticing. But right now, I would rather that you were full of me.” His tone had lost its earlier bantering aspect and had become deadly serious. “I want to be inside you again. Our kind has a voracious appetite for sex. Just giving you a heads up.” His hands had worked their way under her clothing and latched onto her breasts, the nipples of which had gone stiff as the need built up in her once more.
“You want me, I can feel it, tell me!” One arm latched around her waist and pulled her closer as his lips found hers, teasing and tantalizing, while the other tugged and squeezed at a nipple.
“Tell me,” he whispered again, against her lips.
“Ah god help me, yes, yes I want you! I don’t know why but I do! All the time! This thing, this need, is in me and I cannot stop it! Why? What is happening to me?”
“Hush, baby girl, hush!” His lips were at her forehead. “I understand you have these questions, not being raised by your own kind and having to find this out as suddenly as you have. But your higher temperature and these feelings are what happens when you have found your mate. Your body is adjusting to what you are, and being with me, near me, is what has triggered it all. Your body knows what it is, even if your mind does not yet comprehend.”
“So, are you telling me that I am going to change into a bear? And it was you that ran in front of my car, causing me to have that accident!”
“Nope. You will change into that which your personality has the most affinity with. Me? I am bearish, protective and slow to anger. What you will be, I have no idea, although I have a sneaking suspicion. And yes, it was me that first night. Now come here, stop letting all of this be such a burden to you! Let me love you!”
“Here? Aren’t you cold?”
He pulled her closer as if to answer, but kissed her instead, his hands roving over her body once more, the heat of him infusing her, entering every pore. “Undo your pants for me. I need to touch you!”
His lips were playing havoc with her senses, and she found herself undoing the button and zip of her jeans, allowing his questing hand access to her core. He slid one finger into her wetness, while his thumb once more played with her clit, relishing the excitement he could feel building up in her, and at the same time being able to feel what she felt, heightening the whole process to such an extent that he almost came as the first wave hit her. “I have to have you, now!”
“Oh yes, yes!” Alicia’s movements became frantic, their telepathic link in overdrive due to the backwards and forwards thought link, which not only heightened the need, but the total sensation as well. Turning around in his arms, she hiked her jeans down, and bent over, her hands on the rock on which she had sat earlier. “Now, oh please now!”
Lionel could wait no longer, the mutuality of their combined feelings driving him almost to a frenzy. He slid his cock into her from behind, and slammed into her, over and over, the only sound that of their heavy breathing and the frantic slapping of his cock against her with every thrust.
Alicia’s senses were in overdrive, feeling what he felt mingled with her own building climax.
“More, oh please more! Harder!”
Lionel’s hips flexed faster and harder, pinning her against the rock, the slight pain of her crushed breasts adding even more sensation into the mix, and soon they were both panting and grunting, until finally, feeling his climax build almost to fever pitch, she came, as did he, in perfect harmony, the waves hitting them simultaneously, and the bond that was between them adding to it.
They both landed on the snowy ground in a heap, exhausted, sated, and in a near mindless condition. Presently, Lionel pulled her up.
“Let’s go home, shall we? We might not freeze to death, but we need to keep some form of decorum.”
”But… No. I feel strange, Lionel. As if…” The pain shot through her like a knife, tearing through her.
“Lionel! Help me!” Her body was no longer her own, every bone seemed to want to bend, and the air around her shimmered.
“Oh god, kitty cat, don’t fight it, you’re changing! Your inner beast wants freedom! Let it go, honey, let it flow, go with it, accept it, don’t fight it!”
Alicia found herself on hands and knees, her body stretching, elongating, as if her bones were rearranging themselves, changing, and her body tearing apart.
“Lio…” what she was going to say ended in a hissing snarl. ‘What is happening to me!’
“Oh kitty cat, your true self has emerged. You are gorgeous!”
Alicia looked down at her hands. ‘Oh god, what has happened to me? Lionel? I have paws? Huge, russet brown paws?’
‘You have changed, kitty cat. You are the most gorgeous mountain lion I have ever seen!’ Alicia looked over at Lionel. He had changed back into his bear form. ‘Let’s run, kitty cat, let’s be free!’
The huge bear nuzzled her behind her ear, and Alicia smiled inwardly and nodded. Soon, both animals were racing across the snow, the agile cat and the blundering bear, free.