ROMANCE: Forbidden Bear Obsession (Werebear Shifter Taboo Paranormal Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Paranormal Romance Short Stories) Read Free Page A

blunted.
The black eyes held my gaze all the time, but it became smaller and smaller. I
was riveted. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the transformation.
    I’d grown up with mystical creatures, but I’d
never actually seen a shift.
    And when I blinked, it was over. The bear had
shifted into a man. And not just any man.
    It was Donald Crowe.
    He stood, his body still towering over mine,
but as a man’s now, large and capable. He wasn’t wearing much, only a torn pair
of pants. I wondered vaguely where it went when he was a bear. He stood over
me, panting. His eyes were dark and black and mesmerizing, and he looked at me,
into me.
    The atmosphere was still charged, but with
something else now. Something hot and heavy. My hand moved by itself, without
me remembering that I told it to. I put it on the bear skin on his chest. It
was hot, slick with sweat. His chest rose and fell under my fingers. Something
passed between us.
    He leaned in, and kissed me. His lips hard and
strong against mine. The power of his magic surged through me, but not to
paralyze anymore. It was strength, surging through me. I wasn’t prey, not now.
I wondered when the last time was that I felt like that. If I ever did
    His tongue pushed into my mouth, and he pushed
his body up against mine. My hands slid up and around his neck, my fingers
knotting in thick brown hair on his head. Somewhere at the back of my mind I
was telling myself I was being a fool, I was kissing a stranger. I had a mate.
I shouldn’t have been doing this. But the urgency in my body, the ache to be
consumed by this man, overrode any other thought, and I let it go.

3
    “What’s wrong with you?” Lashan watched me at
breakfast. I was disorganized and uncoordinated. Nothing like my usual self. I
tried making myself a smoothie as I always did, but after I sliced open my
finger with a knife and dropped the milk container on the floor, I gave up.
That wasn’t what had Lashan suspicious though.
    I’d put a plate of fresh rabbit on his plate.
I’d caught it the moment the sun was down.
    I hated killing. The smell of fresh blood, as
much as it tweaked my appetite like it would for any other vampire, also
nauseated me. I didn’t like taking a life. But Lashan needed a wife to take
care of him. He deserved that much from me.
    “I thought you’d be happy,” I said. “You were
complaining so much last night.”
    He frowned and watched me for long enough to
make me squirm, but I put on a blank face and cleaned up the milk on the floor.
    Eventually Lashan stopped and started eating.
He made little grunts as he did, and it grated me. I push the irritation away.
Lashan was happy. That was what mattered.
    When he left for work, I didn’t walk to the
bedroom and change my appearance so I would fit into a business world I was
hiding from him. I fetched the mop and cleaned the kitchen, polishing until it
sparkled. Next I tackled the lounge and worked my way through the house. The
bathroom, the office, the bedroom, everything Lashan thought I was doing every
day.
    I didn’t need to go to the office. I had been
wrong all these years to go behind Lashan’s back. I told myself it wasn’t
because I felt guilty. Donald had just opened my eyes to who I really should
be. I squeezed my eyes shut, and ignored the flutter in my stomach. I felt his
hands on my skin again, his lips against my neck. His strong body covering mine
and reducing me to a trembling puddle of urges and cravings.
    I shook my head. No, not that. I didn’t want
that.
    I managed to stay away from the office for
three days before Charlene phoned and asked what was wrong.
    “I’m sick,” I lied. “I’ve been in bed with a
terrible virus.”
    “IS there anything I can do?” she asked.
    I shook my head to convince myself. “I’ll be
alright.”
    “When are you coming back?”
    I had to at some point. Even if it was just to
wrap up the loose ends. I couldn’t stay on, of course. That just wouldn’t
do.   “I’ll