5

Bethany was just as wild as Cedric had guessed. Wild and passionate and amazing.

She didn't hold back every time he brought her to her peak, screaming his name and gasping for more. She pulled on his hair, scratched up his back, and dug her feet into his skin. The socks on her feet had turned him on in a way he never expected, particularly when they were the only thing she was wearing besides his shirt.

His fucking shirt on her was the thing that threw him over the edge, first as he unwrapped her to reveal her creamy soft skin underneath, and then again as he laid flat on his back and she rode him, his shirt hanging open as her breasts swayed. He was pretty sure the seams were going to rip every time he grabbed it, tugging her closer, but the fabric held, and she looked good in it.

Good enough to eat, which he did, just as promised.

Tasting a flowing cunt with his seed dripping from it wasn't new for him, but it was the sweetest taste when it was coming from her. Her taste was rich and earthy, the underlying pine and damp earth seeming to come from within her. It was something he loved in the Spring, and something he craved coming from her.

He had told himself, and her, that he would let her go when she told him to leave, but fuck... he was a goddamn fool if he thought he could fuck her once and be done. A season wouldn't be long enough with a woman like this. How was he supposed to be satisfied with only one night?

Every time he filled her, she arched her back, gasping about how big he was. It wasn't for show or some falsehood, but instead because she wasn't ready for him. He felt guilty about that, as he hadn't courted her and allowed her body to ripen for him, but he couldn't resist wrapping her legs around his waist and filling her every time she reached for him.

If she was a bear shifter, she would have known better than to take what she wasn't yet ready for. In the wild, they would have spent time together, both as bears and as humans, taking the time to grow used to one another and see if they fit. Her body would have softened over time so she could take all of him, but instead, he was demanding and taking her.

She was a human woman used to human men, but she was clearly made to be fucked by a bear.

With each round, whether it was with his cock or his mouth between her thighs, the scent of other men, already faint before he had carried her there, continued to weaken, until all he could smell on her blankets and sheets was him and her, their sex filling the air and burrowing deep in each of them.

He would wear her marks on his body even after he shifted, he hoped, because this was a woman he never wanted to forget.

Her eyes were barely open as she reached for him again, pulling his body close to hers as the warmth from her orgasm spread through her. He knew she couldn't take anymore, the soft smile on her lips as she looked at him telling him just how worn out she was, but when she pulled him in for another kiss, he couldn't help himself. He was ravenous for her, in need of all the fucking he could get before he hunkered down for the winter, all while trying to ignore thoughts of cold winter nights filled with her touch.

He was a bear, and they were built for solitude. He couldn't get used to this.

But fuck, he really wanted to.

"How are you already hard again," she gasped against his mouth as his cock pressed against her belly. "We've already... I've lost count."

"Three times with me in you, and you've had another three on my tongue," he reminded her, because he could remember every detail of every single thing he had done to her so far.

"I bet you taste amazing," she moaned as her hand found his length and stroked him lazily. "Bet you would taste so good if I sucked your cock."

And fuck, the very thought of that did things to him. Her lips were made to be kissed, but the image of them wrapped around his length while her cornflower eyes looked up at him, with her halo of gold rings falling around her shoulders had him rock solid.

But that would mean he wouldn't be able to kiss and touch most of her while she did that.

It would have to be a dream they never fulfilled.

Another time, he wanted to say, but instead, he rolled her onto her back again and kept kissing her, swallowing her moans as he guided himself into her cunt again, careful to be gentle.

She moaned as he pushed within, and he nearly withdrew, not wanting to hurt her, but her fingers moved to his lower back as she pulled him closer, clearly wanting him to fill her once again. She would be feeling it for a few days at this rate, her body sore from his intrusion, but he secretly loved the thought that she would be unable to forget him and the pleasure he had wracked from her body.

He wanted his scent and his touch embedded in her skin as deeply as she was digging herself into his.

Her legs wrapped around his waist, but he lifted them up over his shoulders as he went deeper. Her eyes rolled back before closing, and his hands sought out hers, their fingers interlocking easily. Her hand was so small in comparison to his own, and yet they still fit together perfectly, something he refused to think about too deeply. She was not a small woman at all, built thicker and sturdier than other women he had seen in the bar, not that he had looked for long, but compared to his large human form, she was nearly petite.

Made to be fucked by a bear, truly.

His strokes were long and slow as he moved their joined hands to her belly, and he held two of hers in one as he sought out her clit. She loved when he rolled the now swollen bud with his thumb while he was deep inside of her, and he would not argue with whatever gave her pleasure. Whatever she enjoyed, he would enjoy doing, every single time.

Her pleasure was far more important than his own.

While other orgasms had been loud and needy, this one was slower, with him building both of them up until her legs started slipping from his chest. They slid down to over his forearms, and he picked up his pace, noting how the headboard of her bed was hitting the wall with each thrust. If they weren't careful, he would break the bedframe, and that would give him an excuse to come back and build her a new one, and fuck, he would groove her fingers into it, giving them a place to hold as he fucked her, and that was something he couldn't let himself think about.

Because that made him think about his own cold and empty bed, and how perfectly her gold hair would look on his dark grey bedding.

When she found her release, sighing his name, or the shortened version of it at least, he let himself go, no longer holding back as he finished inside of her. She was shaking from overstimulation, and definitely not the cold because he had built a good fire hours earlier, and he let himself fall down onto the bed beside her. Her eyes were closed, and she wore a peaceful smile on her lips, but she wasn't reaching for him again.

It seemed their night together was coming to an end.

He wanted to reach out and touch her, not for sex but to simply hold her, and when she eventually rolled onto her side, closer to him, he moved with her and wrapped an arm around her lower back, pulling her a little closer. She let out another happy sigh and snuggled in closer, her head now resting on his arm and her cheek pressed against his chest.

"So warm," she murmured, her voice sleepy.

"Always run warm," he answered, not offering any further the reason why he ran warm. She didn't need to know he was a bear.

It wasn't the sort of thing shifters told humans.

"Mmm. I like it."

She yawned one more time, and then he listened to her heartbeat slow and her breathing become deeper. After a few minutes, he knew for certain she was asleep, wrapped up in his arms, now completely worn out.

Cedric was too afraid to close his eyes.

Humans weren't supposed to be like this. They were boring, overly excited, always running about and anxious, not appreciating nature or doing things slow and steady. Everything was an emergency, they were always loud and smelled fake, and the women...

They weren't built like her, made to take his fingers digging into her skin and her body able to take every thrust. He was too big, her cunt not ready to stretch and take all of him, and yet she had begged for more, pulling him towards her time and again. She tasted better than anything he had ever enjoyed in nature, and as he took in a deep breath of her hair, he knew nothing had ever smelled as sweet either.

If he had known a woman like this existed, he would have run as far in the other direction as he could go, never looking back.

Bears didn't do long term. His father had only come around for two seasons, once resulting in Owen being born, and once for Gareth and himself. He had never even met the man, although Owen had memories from the summer their mother was pregnant spending the months in this very valley with their old man, but he had never come back after returning Owen to their mother, not even to meet his two cubs.

That was just the way it was for all bears. Even if they had a reason to return, or a reason to stay, they never did so. They were always on the move, always pushing forward.

And yet, he had been settled in Bear Valley for more than ten winters now, and while he did feel the need to stretch his paws in the Spring, he always longed to return home.

Home would be all the sweeter if Bethany was there waiting for him.

He stayed awake all night, soaking in the sound of her heartbeat and the scent of her hair, and memorizing the softness of her skin under his rough fingertips. She glowed when she smiled, truly looking like sunshine, and he longed for her to smile at him again, just one more time so he could paint it to memory.

This was a night he would never forget, taking the memories with him into his cabin for every hibernation until he grew old and grey. No one else would ever compare, no matter how far he travelled.

Shehad teased him to not fall in love with her, but that was fucking impossible.

Fuck. He had to get his head in the game.

He would do it in the morning. When he left, he would put this aside as the best night of his life, and accept that he would never get a repeat ever again.

Except in the morning, as the sky began to glow with the rising of the sun, Cedric struggled to pull away from her and walk out the door forever.

When he finally did extract himself, he went to the fireplace and stoked the last few logs within. It had burned all night, as he promised, but now that he wasn't holding her, she was likely to get cold. He added a few new logs and waited for them to catch before returning to her bed, taking in one last long look.

His shirt was half under her body, and he imagined her wearing it again one day while having fond memories of him. She was sure to be in a lot of pain as her body processed just how big he was and how many times he had plowed into her, but eventually, she would remember this night the way he did, perhaps.

The rest of his clothing, he gathered up and shoved into the bag he kept in his jacket pocket, then went to the window to push it open. The front door had a little bell over it, and he didn't want to wake her when he opened it, so they could avoid the awkward morning after talk.

The last thing he wanted was to have her give excuses or ask him to leave, and so he would instead leave before he was sent away.

So long as she didn't say she never wanted to see him again, there was still a chance he would be allowed to return one day in the future.

The snow outside wasn't too thick, barely even sticking, but he didn't feel it as he closed the window behind himself, then shifted into his bear form and picked up the bag, and his boots, which had fallen to the ground as he changed from man into beast. He refused to look back as he made his way towards the woods, grateful she lived on the edge of town so there was a good chance he wouldn't be seen.

All he had to keep doing was put one paw in front of the other, heading towards home, until he was finally there and could wash the scent of her off himself. The marks she had left on his body would be gone because of the shifting, but her scent would stay embedded until he scrubbed it away.

And fuck, he had to scrub it away, or else...

Fuck. He had to resist. Had to resist the urge to go back. Had to resist the desire to kiss her again.

He had to stay away. It was for the best. She wasn't interested in any sort of long-time commitment, and he was a bear content in his solitude. One night for fun, and then they had to live their own lives. He couldn't go back to her.

But, fuck, it was going to be a struggle to stay away.

He had to, for their own good, but...

She was a hell of a woman, and Cedric knew, deep in his fur, that he wasn't done with her yet.