15

Cedric tightened his hold on Bethany, unable to let go, and not even wanting to. She was asleep, exhausted from the numerous orgasms and the three rounds of sex they had enjoyed, and now she was in his bed, in his hold, with her head on his chest and her hand holding his. Her breathing was deep, telling him just how asleep she was, and her heartbeat slow and steady, matching his in rhythm.

She was in his cabin, hadn"t argued for a second about him coming to kidnap her, and had even told him she was ready and willing to spend the winter with him. How she was real, he would never know, but he wasn"t going to fuck this up. Whatever happened, he was going to do his fucking best to make her happy, to show her that he was a man worthy of fathering a child with her, and that he would spend all his days devoted to her.

But first, he had to tell her he loved her, and that he was a bear.

In truth, Cedric had no idea which one would be harder.

Everything about their interactions told him that she was scared of being loved. She never mentioned a man in all of her plans of having a child, or in the few moments they talked about the future. It was to be her and her cousin in their cabin, weathering whatever storm blew through together, surviving on their own strengths and skills. She could split wood, hunt and fish, and knew how to fix anything that broke. She didn"t need him.

By contrast, he was the one that desperately needed her. Needed her warmth and her light and her strength. Needed her to make his life better simply with her presence. Needed her fire in his bed and her hand tucked carefully against his.

He loved her. Fuck, he truly loved her. There was no need for soulmates when he had a woman such as this to love.

But he was also a bear, and telling her that shifting creatures and supernatural senses were real was...

She would probably leave him. Call him crazy. Call herself crazy, after she saw him shift from man to beast.

Or, maybe she would be cool with it like Cordelia seemed to be. He had seen bear tracks beside human boot prints near the property more than once, so he knew his brother had showed her the truth.

Maybe he would invite his brother and her cousin over, to help give her the news.

If she could accept that he was a bear, maybe she would be open to him loving her as well. That was a possibility he had to hope for.

Fuck. He was an idiot, and she was there, and he was going to put a baby in her, and...

And she finally knew his real name. Had screamed it all night long.

If he did fuck it all up in the end, he would remember that for the rest of his life. Remember her clenching around his fingers while screaming his name. She was beautiful, passionate, demanding, and he had given as good as he got, until she had fallen asleep, naked in his arms, with his cum on the inside of her thighs.

How was he supposed to sleep when he was terrified it wasn"t real? How was he supposed to close his eyes when he was afraid when he next opened them, she would be gone. She was more than a dream, bigger than a fantasy.

Bethany was everything.

And when she woke up, she would be climbing in his lap, unable to resist the bear pheromones she had grown used to from his continued presence, and he needed to be at his best, ready to fuck her into the mattress until her legs were jelly and she was still moaning his name as she came down from her high.

Sleep. He needed sleep. Needed to rest.

And in the morning, he would give her everything she ever dreamed of...

Bethany"s screams awoke him the next morning, but they were not the screams of pleasure he had so enjoyed the night before, but were instead screams of terror.

Cedric shot up out of the bed and stumbled down the stairs, cursing moving his bed to the loft as he nearly lost his footing. The front door was open and letting cold air in, although the door beyond it which opened to the outside world was still closed, but since there was no fire in his house, he had to guess that whatever had Bethany screaming her head off, and now searching around in her bags while only wearing his shirt and her boots, was on the other side.

"What is it, what"s wrong?" he asked, trying to prepare himself for the worst.

"A bear!" she shrieked, now opening up her gun case with ammo in one hand. "There"s a fucking bear sprawled out in front of your door!"

Oh, fucking hell. God dammit. Fucking all the shit to hell.

If he wasn"t awake before, he was now, all too aware of the shotgun Bethany now had in her hands, open and ready to be loaded.

"You can"t shoot the damn thing!" he growled at her, trying to figure out how to prevent her from killing his stupid ass brother. He wasn"t about to try and take a shotgun from the woman.

"I"m not going to shoot it!" she yelled back, despite the gun now ready in her hands. "I"m just going to fire a shot to scare it off!"

Yeah, except that would only piss Gareth off, who would probably take a playful swipe at them before realizing it wasn"t his bear shifter brother, who had supernatural healing, his claws were digging into.

"It"ll wander off eventually!" Cedric insisted, stepping in between her and the door. "This is bear country, Bethany! There"s gonna be bears!"

"Yes, which is why you shoot off a shot in the air so they fuck off!" she snapped at him, as though she somehow knew more than him. "It"s laying IN FRONT OF THE DOOR! What if it gets into the barn? Or tries to push it"s way in!"

Fuck. She wasn"t wrong. A normal bear who was hungry would definitely try both, but no bears ever wandered close enough to his homestead to try. Not when they could easily smell the scent of bears already marking their territory. A single bear wouldn"t dare go up against two of them, even for the taste of chicken.

It looked like his first secret was about to be revealed, whether he liked it or not.

"I can get rid of it. Hold on," he insisted, stepping into the entryway and trying to pull the door shut behind him, only for Bethany to follow.

Any other situation, and his woman wearing only his shirt and holding a gun would be the hottest thing imaginable. He was ready to fuck her again at that very moment regardless.

But he wasn"t going to take the risk she hit Gareth somewhere important, like his brain. His twin only had so many functioning brain cells left. Didn"t need any more of them getting blasted.

Cedric opened the front door slowly, on the off chance the bear on the other side wasn"t one he recognized, only to see the familiar dark fur he knew belonged to his twin. The bear was sound asleep, despite a woman having only just been screaming, and Cedric opened the door fully just before turning to look at Bethany. She was terrified but steadfast, gun still in hand, thankfully pointed upright. He grabbed the barrel of it all the same, making certain it wasn"t about to be pointed at his brother, then shifted his weight to kick the bear in it"s lower backside.

"You can"t just kick a bear!" Bethany gasped at him, her voice now somewhat hushed.

"I can kick this one. He"s an idiot," Cedric answered before kicking his brother again. "Wake up, you damn fool. Go back to your place."

If Cedric was lucky, and that was a big if, his brother would stay shifted before tottering on home.

Of course, he couldn"t be that lucky.

His third kick hit fur, only for him to half tumble forward as the hulking bear shifted into a human, and Gareth groaned as he stood up, naked as the day they were born, and stretched.

Bethany screamed again, and Cedric was more than glad he had kept his hand wrapped around the barrel of the shot gun, so it would shoot outside and not at him or his twin.

"Damn, she always this much of a screamer?" Gareth asked as he turned around, not at all ashamed of being naked. Then again, Cedric was just as naked. "I can see why you like her so much, brother, although it"s gonna piss off them chickens a bit much of she screams any time she sees an animal."

"Take a breath," Cedric said, turning to Bethany and ignoring his idiot brother. He would have to have more than a few words (and fists) about what was and was not appropriate to say in front of Bethany. Not only was she the woman he was most likely desperately probably in love with, she was also going to be the mother of his cub, or cubs if she so desired, and above all else, once she was in her right mind, there was a good chance she still would shoot him for saying shit like that.

Cedric loved that Bethany knew how to stand up for herself, and Gareth being crude was inexcusable, but he was still going to try and save his brother from her wrath, deserved or not.

"Bethany, look at me," he instructed as he moved closer towards her, wanting to touch her. She was frozen, now, her eyes wide, staring at him as though she had seen, well, a bear turn into a man. She was in shock, he was pretty sure. That was understandable, but she still had a loaded shotgun in her hands, and he didn"t need anyone getting hurt. "Sunshine, look at me. I can explain, but I need you to hand me the gun."

"So this is the reason you"ve been going into town? Damn, brother, you work fast. Didn"t expect you to shack up like Owen. Guess it"s time for you to hibernate, hydrate, copulate, and penetrate. Just don't suffocate under all that ass..."

Nevermind. Bethany could shoot him for all Cedric cared.

"Go home if you don"t want me to let her shoot you," Cedric hissed while looking over his shoulder at his grinning twin. "And don"t talk about her like that. She"s not one of your conquests."

"No, she is not," Gareth grinned, shaking his head slightly. "If she was, you would never see me again, because I would—"

"Finish that statement, and I"ll shoot you myself," Cedric snapped, cutting the bear off. "Home. Fucking hell, man, she didn"t know."

"Didn"t know what?" Gareth asked, looking between the two. Cedric waited for it to click, and yet, Gareth still looked confused. "But fine. Only cause I don"t feel like picking out shell fragments. I"ll feed the animals, but you owe me some jerky and you can do the farm work for the rest of the week. Asshole."

Gareth thankfully started walking away while he was talking, allowing Cedric to turn his attention back to Bethany. Her heart was still pounding in her chest, and a flood of scents flooded his nostrils. There was fear, nervousness, worry, but also something richer. Something that had his cock, which was not needed during this conversation, rising to attention.

"Bethany, I can explain," he began, still trying to get her to focus on him. Her eyes were wide, and she was looking his way, but there was no focus to them. "Sunshine. Focus on the sound of my voice. We"re gonna head on back in the house, you"re gonna give me the gun, and we"re gonna sit down and talk."

Her eyes focused, finally, and she took a step back... only to lower the gun towards him.

Cedric clenched his jaw as he stared her down, not knowing what she would do next.

Knowing that maybe, just maybe, he sort of deserved it.