Authors: Leela Ash
“Darryl, I am coming. Oh God!”
Aria thrashed and clamped around the man’s shaft so hard. Darryl watched his length pull out of her and the sight of her loss innocence drove him forward. She begged him to go harder and faster, knowing that there was a bigger orgasm on the horizon. Aria’s eyes closed as he sat back on his knees, her thighs being held together by his large, rough hands. He squeezed her thighs tightly together and rutted in and out of her.
“One more time baby, please come one more time for me Aria. I love watching you come.”
It was transfixing and the man could tell that the woman was primed for another one. His hand fell to the top of her slit and he pressed hard on her tiny nub. She squealed with the contact and gripped handfuls of his muscles as her insides collapsed around his thrusting shaft. He gritted his teeth, trying to hold back, but when their eyes met, he was lost in her. He felt himself explode inside of her, shaking as much as her pussy walls were.
Pulling out, he laid next to her on his back. Aria crawled over to his chest and laid her head over his steady beating heart. She mewled softly next to him, her leg hooked on top of his, holding him in a full body embraced. She felt like singing, her whole body throbbing with remembered pleasure.
“So are we going to talk about what happened on the ice today?”
Darryl looked down at her and held her close. He was still afraid that his words would scare her, but he knew that they must come out. Darryl knew that it was a lot to take, though he hoped she would have an open mind because one was desperately needed.
“So you know what I am now.”
“I am not sure. I thought I saw you turn into a bear, but that doesn’t make much sense.”
“I am a lycanthrope, but instead of a wolf, my family turns into polar bears.”
“Your family?”
“Yea all those guys at work are my brothers.”
“Oh. So did Martha know about your little secret?”
“She did, but she knew that her family had their own secrets. I told you that our families are connected, I meant it. Your great aunt lived in the family house until a few years ago. It still does not feel the same without her there.”
“Why did she move here?”
“When Martha’s mate died, she no longer wanted to live in the big house. Her mate was my grandfather, so my father built her a small cottage down on the bottom of the mountain, so she was always close. It skips generations you see, so since Martha didn’t have any children, she must have known that you would be the one.”
“So what does that mean? I am confused.”
“Your blood ensures that my kind keeps going. You were mine before you were even born Aria, as I am yours. The birthmark on your chest marks you as the tattoo on my back marks me. I know this is hard to believe, but you will have our children and you probably already have some in your stomach.”
He held her, cradling her flat stomach. Aria noted the word some and she wondered if what he said was true.
“Why me?”
“Your family line was from here thousands of years ago. The legend says that there was a hard time that fell on this village and black bears killed many people. One of the medicine man imbued a man with special powers to fight the beasts and he would turn into a white bear at night to stalk out the dangerous foes. The white hid him in the snowy ice and they never saw him coming. This saved the village and he passed the ability on to his children. Your ancestor was the medicine woman and every other generation, our two families most converge, or the magic wears off.”
It all sounded like such a magical tale, one that you would tell your children and add in a moral at the end. If she had not seen him change once and then back again, she never would have believed such a fable. There were more questions that she wanted to know, but she was more interested in seeing her new home.
The man passed her small house and continued up the hill for another mile and a half in the truck. She had gotten dressed and followed him outside. He wanted to show her new home, but she still seemed to be taking it all quite well.
The road made the woman nervous and she tried not to look down off the edge. She already had doubts about the place and then the trees opened up, revealing the gem hidden behind them. The house was huge and beautiful. It was completely hidden from the main road. She never would have known it was up there
“Wow, I see your business does well.”
Darryl chuckled and kissed her on her lips.
“Our business. It will help with all of the children we will have. I have ten brothers.”
“Only brothers? And who says I am going to have that many children?”
“You cannot say no to me.”
Aria smirked, but she knew deep down that she would never say no to him. He was the man of her dreams and she was never going to let go. His eyes darkened as he put the truck in park and pulled her out with him towards the house. He opened the door and followed in behind her. In his home, he was excited to have her make it hers as well. It was a long time coming that the Alpha heard the pitter patter of his bloodline and he could not think of anyone else that was more suited to have them. His mouth came down on her surprised one and she was quickly winding her body around his.
“Now about our babies….”
Darryl grabbed her up and squeezed her sides as he dragged her up the winding staircase to their new bedroom. He barely made it through the threshold, before he threw her onto the bed and covered her with a skilled quickness. Aria was his for the taking.
THE END
Chapter 1
Lois was on her way back to Barrow. She had been unable to take off from work to travel the previous summer, marking the first year of her life to miss the majestic views of Alaska. Now she stood looking out from the boat once again, feeling warm nostalgia for the summers spent in that tiny town on the Arctic Ocean. Her parents had brought her each year to see the whales. Her mother was a marine biologist, who loved sharing the mystery of the sea with her daughter, and her father was the doting spouse, there at her mother’s beck and call for whatever she needed. Lois closed her eyes and felt for a moment as if they were still there with her. It had been 5 years since her parents had been lost in a car accident. Barrow was all she had left of them.
Her eyes adjusted to the reflecting sun and her heart soared as she took in the small town from a distance. Coming here was like coming home. She still rented the same room at the boarding house where her family had always stayed together, ate at the same restaurants, and haunted the same local hangouts. Her life had been so upside down for the last few years that the familiar had become a rare and precious thing. She had been on edge for a month, waiting for the trip. The laboratory where she conducted research at home had been growing smaller by the day, and once the weather was warm enough for traveling north she was more than ready to go.
There was still about twenty minutes from the dock and Lois spent the time repacking the few things that she had pulled out of one of her bags. She hadn’t brought much considering her plan to stay on for at least three months, so she was able to carry all of her things off the boat on her own. She walked two blocks to an old garage where she paid to keep her truck and visited with the owner, Old Merl, before she took off to the boarding house on the other side of town. Burrow was quaint; she loved everything about its rugged, small town charm.
Lois parked her truck and walked toward an old two-story house.
An older woman hurried out onto the porch, opening her arms toward her. “Oh! You’re finally here! I heard there’s a terrible storm coming and I was afraid you would get caught in Ketchikan.”
Lois set her bags on the ground to embrace the nearest likeness to a mother she had left in the world. It was as if this woman had been placed in her life long ago for a future that had already been set in stone.
They walked into the old house together and the familiarity enveloped her. It was exactly like it had always been. Her hand softly ran over the back of one of the couches. “It never changes. That’s why I love it here so much, Miss Beth.” Lois was looking around, soaking up the memories that hung in the air, thick as the scent of the large spruce beams that met overhead in the homey living room. “Do you have a lot of visitors right now?”
“Oh just you and one other, Jeffrey, he’s in town for some hunting I think. You know how those men are, they get all riled up to kill something with a gun. He is kinda cute, maybe you two will hit it off…” Beth turned away slightly, trying to stay casual.
Lois raised her eyebrows in amusement. “I doubt that,” she smiled dryly. “And how do you know I’m single?”
“’Cause I know. You don’t have that glow about you yet, but just wait, it will come in time.” The older woman thought herself something of a matchmaker, and though Lois knew Beth’s successes had been due to the miniscule population of Barrow providing little opportunity for ideal prospects, she wanted to believe her. At twenty-two, she had yet to be in a substantial relationship that went beyond a few dates and awkward kisses. It was long past time for her to get serious, but she found it hard to get close to many people.
“We’ll see, I guess. When it happens, it happens,” she resolved out loud.
“That sounds well and good dear, but sometimes you gotta get out there and take what you want. The hell with trying to wait for it to fall in your lap, go find it.”
Lois was surprised by the advice, but more surprised by the gumption in Beth’s expression. She considered the last few men she had written off after hardly taking time to know them. She weakly attempted to reassure herself that they hadn’t been worth her time. She could keep an open mind without changing what she wanted in a man, after all. He was out there somewhere, but she was becoming impatient.
“What are you thinking about, dear? You’ve got the strangest look on your face,” Beth interrupted her thoughts.
Lois blushed and started up the stairs towards her room. She knew it would already be ready for her, probably had been for a week. “Nothing, just my love life,” she laughed absently, “Maybe you’re right, Miss Beth. I need to get out more, and I will, after I get back home this fall. You know there aren’t very many men out here, even at this time of year.”
“You never know,” said Beth with a twinkle in her eye.
Lois nodded and promised to be down in a bit for dinner after she cleaned up. She felt tired and dirty from an entire day of travel. She had ended up sleeping in an airport during a storm in Chicago that delayed her flight, and a shower was in order. As she climbed into the relaxing steamy water, her thoughts were still on her non-existent love life and the older woman’s words. It sounded like something her mother would have said. Lois had never truly imagined allowing someone beyond the barriers she had placed between herself and the men she knew in the past. She realized the only thing that held her back from new experiences was fear of the unknown. Looking down at her body, slick with water and suds, she wondered what a man would think of her if she were indeed to open herself up to knowing someone on a deeper level.
The hot water was a blessing and she was soon feeling human again. Throwing her shoulder-length hair in a bun, she tiptoed down the hall with a towel wrapped around her. There was a tall man in the hallway next to her open door and she could tell he was looking in. He hadn’t noticed her and she almost backed into the bathroom, but she did not want to put the old clothes that reeked of fish back on after her shower.
“Excuse me, I need to get through,” she said hurriedly. The man turned around and his blue eyes held hers for several moments before the words seemed to reach his brain enough for him to move. She thanked him and walked into her room, shutting the door softly behind her. Her heart thudded as she looked down at herself and was thankful that no part of her had been sticking out. The towel certainly exposed a bit more than she would have liked for a first meeting.
As she was getting dressed, she couldn’t help but think about the man in the hallway. She tried to remember if Beth had given her his name, then she recalled it was Jeffrey. He was blonde and blue eyed, with broad shoulders, surely over six feet tall. It was the way in which he had looked at her and his set jaw that caused her to think about it for the rest of the evening. She really did not care for hunting, but with Beth’s words in mind, she figured she could go down to dinner with an open mind.
Beth’s boarding house was one of the best places in town to get food. Many wanted her to turn the old place into a restaurant, but she insisted if you wanted her food, you would just have to stay the night and have dinner. It was one of Lois’ favorite times as she wasn’t much of a cook herself and had mainly subsisted on take-out in the city for the past year. There was also more than a passing thought of seeing Jeffrey again, and at least the next time, she would have some clothes on.
Lois finally made her way downstairs and the aroma of a home cooked meal immediately greeted her as she entered the dining room. Beth had made her favorite, as she always did on the first evening of a summer trip.
“Smells great, Miss Beth!” she chirped gleefully. Taking a seat, she smiled over at one of the men already seated at the small table. He introduced himself and Lois shook his hand. She nodded to Jeffrey, who was sitting a few chairs down the length of the table. She was unsure whether a proper introduction was even necessary at this point considering their unofficial meeting in the hall only minutes before.
The three of them quickly fell into conversation about some of the animal sightings around the hotel, and Jeffrey’s face lit up with excitement as he told them about the polar bears he had spotted a few days before.
“I only get to take one head home. There are some endangerment laws, but I paid a pretty penny to get the one, so I want it to be the biggest damn one I can get out there. I almost got one earlier this week, but thankfully I missed because that one was a runt compared to the two I saw today.” He paused with a confused look on his face, “They are strange creatures though. I’ve never seen an animal that acted like these bears.”
Lois was entirely disgusted with the conversation. The idea that someone would pay money to kill something was beyond her. It was not as if he would be eating the bear, he only wanted the head as a trophy. She shook the image from her mind and decided that sleep was in order.
Miss Beth looked at her half-f bowl with questioning eyes, and Lois shrugged. She bade the group goodnight and plodded up the stairs. Her hopes of a romance with the striking Swedish man were off the table.
***
The next morning, Lois was up and at the dock before seven. The older gentlemen that had let her use his boat in previous years had died over the winter and Lois had sought other arrangements. She had talked to an old friend who suggested she contact Conner Vern. She knew the name from town, but had not met anyone from the locally esteemed Vern family in person. Vern Corporations owned nearly half of the business that operated in Barrow.
Conner wasn’t able to arrange meeting with her, but keys and a schedule had been left at the boarding house for her use, so all she had to do was find the boat. Looking down at the dock number she had written down, it became clear that the boat was a lot smaller than she had hoped.
“Well, less money on gas,” she said to herself as she looked at the small boat that was looking like a dinghy compared to all of the others docked around it. She was too eager to get out on the water for it to matter much anyway. She approached her mini boat from the dock and noticed the name, “Fate” painted across the bow. When she climbed onboard, she was pleasantly surprised. While it was old, there were many modern conveniences that she had not enjoyed in a boat before. A crocheted red blanket was neatly rolled and tied with twine, lying in the captain’s chair. She reached to unfold it, and discovered a beautiful notecard attached to the twine. It had a helpful note with basic instructions and well wishes, and at the bottom “
The Verns
” was signed in large scrolling letters. As she pulled the blanket tightly around her shoulders, she wondered for a moment what kind of people they were, feeling certain that members of the Vern family did not actually take the time to sign cards for placing in each of their rental boats. Starting the engine up, the purr made her smile and she was soon untying herself from the dock and taking off towards the unbroken horizon.
The cool wind whipped in her hair and pulled the strands loose as she weaved her way around large blocks of ice that were a permanent feature in the landscape. Her eyes were always peering through the small ripples on the surface of the water, waiting to catch a glimpse of the majestic creatures she was there to see. The whales were her favorite, but there were seals and polar bears to spy on as well. She had taken her camera in hopes of getting a little work done, but the breeze distracted her from any sense of work, it was a morning for simply admiring the nature around her in reverie.
The boat was tiny, especially in the open water, but she felt more conspicuous than before. In the past, she had sailed on a small barge even when it had only been her aboard with the old man who owned it in the years following her parents’ death. It made sense when she considered the size of the mammals she studied. The smaller boat glided through the water with ease, making the work easier and the sights far more enjoyable. It felt as though she were part of the surrounding habitat, mere inches from the water. She was falling in love with the boat as much as she had fallen in love with Barrow.
On her way back in, Lois paused when she saw clouds of white fur moving on a small sheet of ice, not yet melted so early in June. It took her a moment to realize that she was looking at three massive polar bears. They all seemed to be adult, male bears – which did not make sense. Polar bears were known to be solitary animals. She had never heard of so many males gathering at once and she was intrigued. She watched them for some time, turning the boat motor off. They were clearly waiting for the seals swimming in the water below the ice to come up for air, each bear at a different hole. The surface of the water moved at one of the openings, there was a flurry of action, and then blood covered the white surroundings. Lois instantly thought of Jeffrey’s quest. She sent a small prayer up that he wouldn’t catch one of the majestic creatures. They were far too fierce and beautiful to be mounted on a wall in such a barbaric way.
After the incident and the breathtaking view of the bears, Lois decided to take Jeffrey out. She had a notion that maybe she could talk him out of it by helping him to see things from her point of view. There were plenty of things to do besides hunt, and she knew that he was only there a few more days. He just needed to be kept busy until then.