Obeying the Bear: BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance (The Callaghan Clan Book 1) (4 page)

Without further argument or thought, she bit down on a piece of leg meat. The taste of blood and muscle stirred her up and gave her energy again. She wanted to hunt. She wanted to run. So when she finished the last bit of carcass, she stood and roared into the night again. Bo slipped away, understanding that this was a time for me and Brandt only. He barked and huffed in my face and I returned the gesture. Then, with a gleam in his eyes, he took off at a sprint.

I chased him out of the clearing and into the thick forest. The thrill, the excitement, brought me back to a time when I’d been happy in Alaska. Since we were cubs, Brandt and I would hunt each other in these woods. Sometimes it would be me and my brother and Brandt and his brothers. But as we got older, it would more often be just the two of us.

Brandt jumped over a fallen log, splashing through the small creek behind it. I stayed close, my human and my bear loving the feeling of freedom. But when Brandt dodged behind a large boulder, I was surprised when I didn’t find him on the other side. His scent said he’d been there but I couldn’t see him. Sniffing the air, I tried to track his beast. He went east, no south. I took off.

I’d only made it a few feet away before a large body crashed into me. Brandt landed on my back, sending us into a roll down a small embankment. I slammed into small trees and rocks, but Brandt somehow protected my body from most of the impact. When we landed in a stream, he took off at a full sprint again through the water.

In pursuit, I roared into the air. Brandt responded but kept running—taunting me to try and catch him. But I knew where he was taking us, so I scrambled up the embankment and cut across the land where the stream curved. In no time at all, I saw it. The waterfall where we’d always come when having a bad day. Sniffing the air again, I looked for his bear. He was nearby but yet the scent wasn’t as strong.

The crescent moon broke free from the clouds and shone off the water like a beacon. And there, standing on a boulder at the bottom of the falls, was Brandt. In his beautiful, naked human form he waited for me. My bear rumbled inside, a mating sound escaping her jowls. Brandt snapped his head up and smiled when he spotted us.

“Come join me.”

I shook my head and backed up a few steps into the woods. She wanted to be chased, hunted into submission. And I had no control over my bear anymore.

“Do you really want to play this game with me?” Brandt teased, the excitement in his own voice coming through.

I took another step back.

“Very well,” he whispered. In an explosion of energy, he leapt from the rock and shifted into his grizzly before he had all four feet on the ground. He bounded up the step sides, nothing deterring him from his pursuit.

My bear waited until he appeared on the top of the embankment and then she ran directly at him. Just before our two grizzlies were about to crash together, I jumped into the air and twisted our body enough to sail over Brandt. He hadn’t seen the move coming and slid into a tree trying to change directions as quickly as he could. But we waited for him, cooing a sound that could only be interpreted one way.

Brandt froze, listening and twitching his ears with each submissive cry we made. And then he shifted back into human form. On his hands and knees, he lifted his head to see us both. His eyes widened as he watched me shift, the pain of transition no longer taking center stage. As my human eyes focused on him, I whispered his name.

He was on me in an instant. His lips crashed into mine, his tongue pushing inside. My back slammed into a tree as he lifted my hips so I could wrap my legs around his waist. His erection pressed between us with such lovely force I let out a moan. I pulled on his hair, encouraging him to kiss me more deeply. And he complied. Brandt and I knew each other so well that I didn’t have to worry about him interpreting my signals the wrong way.

As he pulled back from the kiss, I rubbed my lips up and down his neck, gently nipping on his shoulder. He trembled and pushed his hands between my legs. I was wet and ready for him, so his growl of content only excited me more.

“I missed you so much,” he breathed into my ear. I bit down a little harder. “Jesus, Emma.” His finger plunged inside and I moaned into the air. It had been way too long since I’d had this kind of contact with a man, let alone this amazing man.

“I want you inside,” I whispered.

But he tensed and stopped teasing my folds. “No.”

“Please,” I begged, rubbing my sex against his cock.

Brandt set me down but held on to my hips. “Not until you’ve been punished.”

My bear roared. She loved to be punished by Brandt. The grin widened on my face even though Brandt tried not to have any expressions. I reached up and rubbed my hands over his stubbled face. “And just how do you plan on punishing me?”

He whipped me around by the hips and pushed me back up against the tree. My breasts and stomach pressed into the bark but the pain only excited me more. Brandt grabbed my wrists and forced them up over my head. His breath tickled my skin along my ear.

“You disobeyed me,” he breathed.

“Yes.”

One hand grasped my wrists while his other hand ran down over the curves of my ass. “And you left me.”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered and let out a small whimper when he slapped my cheek.

“You’re going to be sorry.” His hand slid around to the front and he pinched my nipple. I cried out in ecstasy. “You must learn how to obey the bear.”

With those words, he plunged inside of me. My body scraped along the tree as he filled me up completely. I moaned against the pine while he slowly moved in and out. Tilting my head to the side, I exposed my neck and pushed my hips back into him. I offered myself, fully, to him and his bear. My mate would never hurt me. I trusted him completely.

With that move, Brandt made a sound somewhere between a growl and a roar which turned me on even more. He was such a dominant man yet knew exactly what to do to please his mate. His fingers teased my clit while his arm stayed wrapped over my hip. His body pushed against mine with each thrust, filling every inch and hitting that special spot inside.

“More,” I begged.

Brandt bit down on my shoulder, not hard enough to draw blood but enough to claim his mate. Heat built in my core and again I wondered how I could have ever left him in the first place. We fit together so perfectly…there was no denying our connection. He was right, I needed to be punished.

“Take me,” I whispered, knowing he would understand.

He made another noise and then quickly dropped us to the ground. I fell on all fours and Brandt took me from behind. Arching my hips up like a cat, I encouraged him to have every single inch of me. He growled and roared and slammed his hips into mine, the slapping sounds louder than the nearby waterfall. My core expanded, the feeling of my pending orgasm warming up and radiating from the center.

His grip tightened seconds before he came. His dick hardened even more, sending me over the edge and causing me to scream out like no one would ever hear me. He shuddered inside, the warm liquid flowing into me as we mated for the first time in almost a year.

And as we finished, my bear settled back down. Content that I was here with Brandt. Content that I was home again.

I
hadn’t been
able to control myself. Or my bear. Emma was my mate and she was back. I couldn’t resist fucking her no matter how hard I tried.

Her body trembled below mine as I finished. The curves of her ass pressed tightly against my pelvis. Such a tease. She always had been but she’d only ever teased me. No one else ever grabbed her attention, no matter how hard they tried.

Emma slid down to her stomach as I pulled free. Her skin glistened like mine in the moonlight, the mossy ground providing a cushy pad. I lay down on top her, trialing kisses from the dimple in her back up to her neck. Shivering under my lips, I felt like I could never stop touching her.

“I am sorry, Brandt.”

Her words brought me back to the reality that she really wasn’t mine anymore. Rolling off her perfect body, I nestled down beside her and rested my hand across her back. “Why did you leave?” I needed to ask the question even if I didn’t want to hear the answer.

Emma flipped her long hair over her shoulder and turned her head to face me. “I think there were a lot of reasons.” She closed her eyes for a moment and when she opened them again a tear slipped out. I wanted to wipe it away, I didn’t want her to hurt. But I also needed her to explain herself. “And now that I’m here,” she continued softly, “I’m trying to remember what they were.”

I sighed, my bear not satisfied with that answer although he wanted me to keep touching my mate. “Was it me?”

Emma shifted on her side so that she mimicked my position. “No, Brandt. You never did anything wrong.”

“But I couldn’t stop you from leaving.”

“I don’t know if you could have. I never gave you the chance to stop me.”

She was right, but that didn’t make this any easier. I rubbed my hand along her cheek, brushing the hair out of her face. She leaned into my touch, a small sound rumbling in her chest. Her sound of happiness. “I need to know why, Emma. I need a reason.”

She swallowed and looked up at the sky. “I felt…uneasy. My bear felt…threatened almost.” Shaking her head, she tried to explain better. “There was this urge to run inside of me. Nothing happened that triggered it really, it just continued growing until I finally listened.”

“Why didn’t you tell me. It was my job to protect you.”

“I don’t know.”

“Emma,” I said in warning. “I need you to be honest. I deserve your honestly.”

“You’re right, you do.” She turned on her other side and pressed her back against my stomach. “The human side of me was tired of the politics. We were to be married, have cubs, lead the clan when your father stepped down. It was all too much. My whole life revolved around what the clan had planned for me. I never had a choice.”

“You didn’t want to marry me?”

She turned her head slightly so that she could look up at me. “We were already mated. Marriage was just a piece of paper for the human world.”

“So then I don’t understand.”

“I was uneasy. I know that’s not a great explanation but it’s the only way I can think to describe it. My bear didn’t feel safe.”

Hating her words, I tried to be understanding. But it was hard and my anger stirred just below the surface. “And what about now. How does she feel now?”

“Happy,” she whispered. “She’s very happy to be with her mate again. And so am I.”

I knew I should still be upset with Emma for leaving me at all. But dammit if I didn’t love her now more than ever. Our bears were one once more, and after tonight I would never let her feel unsafe again.

“Do you think we should go back?” she asked after several minutes of silence.

“Probably.”

“Do you want to go back?”

“No.”

She giggled against me. “Then how about we head down to the waterfall. I’m thirsty.”

I jumped to my feet and then lifted her off the ground. In one quick move, I cradled her in my arms and bounded down to the water’s edge. She laughed the whole way, just like she used to. I’d missed that laugh and her smell and her skin against mine. Nothing had felt right this past year without her here. Nothing. Not even my bear acted normal, a weakness I had no doubt would come up when I was fighting for alpha. In fact, I had mentioned to a few clam members that I didn’t want to be alpha without my mate. While my dad had done that most of his life, I couldn’t function completely without Emma by my side.

So now, as I watched her dip her hands into the water and smile up at me, all of the possibilities of my future felt like they were within grasp again.

* * *

W
e were almost back
to the house when I sensed something off. Emma’s hand tensed under my grip and she lowered the hood of her sweatshirt to smell the air.

“What is that?” she whispered.

My bear scented the odor again, wishing that it had been wrong. “Blood.”

“But whose?”

“I don’t know.” It was a partial lie. I thought I knew but I didn’t want to accept it.

Emma dropped her hand and jogged ahead of me, making me want to jump in front of her and protect her. She reached the bottom steps leading up to the front deck and slid to a stop. “Oh no,” she cried out.

I saw the body a second later. Skinned, bloodied, and head removed. Only this time, the carcass was the human form. The human form of Dixon Donegal.

“What the fuck!” Bo jumped down from the second floor deck and landing in a crouch next to us. Wearing nothing but sweatpants, he looked ready to shift. “Where are they?” He snapped his head in several directions trying to find those responsible.

“How’d they get in and out so quickly,” Derrick asked, appearing by our sides. “We were here the whole time.”

“Maybe during the moksha?” Emma suggested.

I shook my head. “Dixon was there. At least until we left.”

Brennan joined us and gave me a look that suggested I didn’t know everything that happened tonight. “He came back early. After he fed he told me he needed to be alone. I figured it was his way to grieve.”

“Hey, there’s a note,” Emma pointed to a piece of paper resting under the head.

I didn’t want to reach down and grab it, but I was the leader right now. “It’s just a paw print.” I rotated it in the light. “A wolf print, I think.”

Brennan ripped the paper from my hands and sniffed it. “Definitely wolf.”

“Jesus Christ,” Bo muttered. “Are they the ones killing our people?”

“The Tik’a pack would never harm us,” I argued. “We’ve worked together for centuries.” Our relationship with the local wolves extended far beyond just territorial agreements. In fact, I’d read some of that in the paperwork my dad left behind.

“They would if they wanted something,” Derrick added.

“And they’ve been fighting for voting rights for the last several years,” Bo said.

I shook my head. “No, I don’t believe it.” Staring at Dixon’s mutilated body, my stomach churned in disgust. “Disputed voting rights doesn’t lead to the murder of our clan’s alpha and second.”

“Brandt,” Emma rested her hand on my shoulder.

“No, it doesn’t add up.”

“We need to elect an alpha. Tonight.” Brennan’s usually mellow voice shook with anger.

“I can put out the call. Most of them should still be nearby,” Derrick offered.

“Okay,” I said reluctantly. I didn’t want to go through that process tonight. Filled with highs and lows today, I didn’t know how much more of this I could handle right now.

Derrick jogged back to the house, phone already glued to his ear. “Can you take care of this?” I asked Bo and Brennan, looking at Dixon. They nodded and I took back the paper. “Thank you.”

“I’ll make everyone some coffee,” Emma said, tears in her eyes once again tonight. “Come on, Brandt, you’re going to have to be ready for this.”

I let her drag me away, trusting that my brothers would handle the body properly. We would have to come up with yet another story for the human world as to why we’d lost a second clan member in a week.

“You know, he was the one who found me,” Emma said as we entered the house.

“What?”

“Dixon. He found me in Colorado and told me about your dad.”

I froze, not sure how I felt about that. “But I told him to stop looking.”

Emma smiled up at me. “When did Dixon ever listen to anyone but your dad. Besides, I’m glad he disobeyed you.”

My chest relaxed a little bit recognizing that Emma was here to stay. She might not have said it, but I could tell. I knew her well enough.

Within thirty minutes, our house was full of bear shifters. As was customary, everyone came, including the cubs. We gathered around the food table still sitting there after the wake. Emma set up the coffee with the help of Elizabeth and Tammy, the only two unmated females left in our clan. That would be another task of the alpha…making sure they were mated sooner rather than later.

I sighed for the thousandth time today, parts of me wishing I could run away like Emma had. Maybe the two of us could go together. I would refuse the alpha position, leave Alaska, and make a home for both of us. That dream kept my spirit up while I watched the room divided itself into two sides.

Derrick walked up behind me chewing on an apple. “This isn’t going to be as straight forward as I’d hoped.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can see the division. They’re going to challenge you. I almost guarantee it.”

He chomped away as I surveyed our clan. I’d suspected as much but hoped for a better outcome. Especially after the events of today. “Then let them challenge,” I said softly. “It’s why we select the way we do.”

One of our dominant males, Zane, caught my attention and yelled out in front of everyone, “Where’s Dixon?”

Everyone stopped talking and all eyes focused on me and Derrick. I had no doubt they could sense my sadness and anger just by the way some of them reacted before I even spoke a word. “He’s dead.”

“I thought I smelled blood.”

“Oh my god.”

“Why aren’t we safe anymore?”

That last comment was from Joshua, the “leader” of a group of bears I was sure planned on challenging me. “I’ll tell you why,” he continued, stepping forward in the middle of the room and demanding attention. “Because it’s time for the Callaghan’s to step aside and allow a more competent family to lead you all.”

“Your family?” someone else asked sarcastically.

Joshua growled and tossed a glare at him. “Perhaps, yes.”

“What happened to Dixon?” Zane asked, ignoring Joshua’s attempt to stir up the crowd.

I stepped down into the living room. Derrick followed and Bo and Brennan closed in my flank. “He was murdered. Left outside this house skinned and beheaded.”

“What the fuck,” Zane growled.

“Who did it?”

“We don’t know for sure—”

“There was a note with a single wolf print on it,” Brennan cut in. I glared at him but he ignored me. “We’re already investigating.”

“Do you really think the Tik’a pack did this?” Elizabeth spoke up, showing me that she had a lot of potential as a strong mate.

“No,” I said.

“Bull shit,” Joshua shouted over top of me. “They kill two of us in a week and leave a fucking note and you don’t think it’s them?” He turned back to the rest of the clan. “We need to end this. Now!”

Many members, more than I would have liked, started to cheer. Emma walked over to my side and rested her hand on my back. It was the encouragement I needed to stay strong and focused. “Now is not the time to start a war in our backyard,” I said.

“War is already here,” Joshua yelled. “First your father and now Dixon. Who’s next?” Again he faced his supporters. “We need an alpha who will protect us at all costs. Not try to negotiate with murderers.”

Bo sauntered over and stood right in front of Joshua. The tall man looked down at him in surprise but didn’t move. “I nominate Brandt Callaghan to the position of alpha.”

“I second,” someone said.

“And I nominate Joshua Housten to the position of alpha.” Zane spoke with confidence but his eyes held fear when he met my gaze.

“I second.” Joshua’s mate, Eliza, said.

I ground my jaw together but tried not to react. “Any other nominations?” I asked.

People looked around the room, waiting for someone else to step forward. But it was obvious relatively quickly that no one dared enter this contest.