ROMANCE: Forbidden Bear Obsession (Werebear Shifter Taboo Paranormal Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Paranormal Romance Short Stories) (3 page)

4

I got on the shuttle that would take me home.
It was a normal routine, I was on the curb at three, and I stepped into the
shuttle, greeting the same man I always did.

But everything felt off. There was an electric
hum in the air, and my skin prickled. My stomach was a knot of nerves and I
tried to untangle my feelings in all of it. Donald was a hurricane in my life,
pushing everything just a little bit off-kilter. I hadn’t been happy with my
life before, but I’d been able to deal with it. Now everything felt just so
much off-balance that I had to really focus not to lose it. And I didn’t like
it. I didn’t want to face my life anymore.

You’re
being an idiot,
I told myself.
You’re being irrational. A stupid affair. Not even. A once off thing,
and you want to wash everything down the drain.
Your life is a good one
and I tried my best to believe it.

But it wasn’t just Donald. It wasn’t just my
eyes that were suddenly opened to the fierceness that life could hold. I’d been
passive for so long.

When the shuttle pulled up at the corner and I
stepped out, the air was charged. This wasn’t just Donald. I was sure of it
now. As I walked home, the atmosphere pressed down on me, heavier and heavier
as I got closer to the house. I swallowed hard and focused on breathing. In.
Out. In. Out.

Vampires could feel a lot of things. I’d pushed
my senses away. It was my job to be the housewife. Lashan was the ruler of our
little kingdom. It was the man’s job to protect his own. But my senses were
alive and tingling now, and I had a very ugly feeling that something was about
to go wrong. It was like a bad aftertaste in my mouth, something I couldn’t
swallow away.

When I opened the front door, Lashan sat in
the armchair that faced the television. His back was to me. I jumped, unable to
stop the fear rippling through my body before I got a handle on it.

Calm. I had to stay calm.

“You’re home early,” I said, dropping my keys
on top of the little wooden stand instead of putting it in the drawer as I
usually did.

“Where were you?” he asked. His voice sounded
far away, like he was talking through cotton.

“I was at the butcher. I wanted to make
something special tonight.” I’d said the first thing that came to mind.

“And?” He stood up, and the air around us
shifted. I realized that the force I was feeling came from him.

“And what?” I asked, forcing myself to stay
confident. Lashan would read insecurity.

“What did you get?”

I swallowed, mind racing. I had nothing to
show for my supposed trip.

“I couldn’t find anything that suited my
taste. I wanted it perfect.”

Lashan walked around me, circling like a
vulture. His eyes were scrutinizing.

“You were at the butcher’s for five hours, and
you have nothing to show for it?” he asked. His voice was low, almost a soft
purr, but I knew better than to take his calm attitude at face value. When
Lashan screamed and shouted and threw things around he was more bark than bite,
and it would blow over almost as quickly as it started. It was when he was
quiet and pensive like this that he was really dangerous.

“Five hours?”

“I came home at ten.” He stopped in front of
me. His hands hung idly by his side, but his left hand twitched slightly before
it was still against his thigh. Again I focused on breathing regularly.

“This is ridiculous,” I said. I shook my head
and walked away from him towards the kitchen. He grabbed my wrist before I got
very far, and yanked me back. His fingers curled around my wrist and he
squeezed hard. There would be five little round bruises tomorrow morning.

“Let go of me,” I said hoarsely, looking at
his hand, and then up into his eyes. They were furious. Dark and foreboding,
and I didn’t know what to make of them.

“Where have you been?” he asked again.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, hoping that
answering a question with a question would throw him off track.

“I expect you to be home when I get here. I
don’t work myself to the bone every day so you can go out and have the time of
your life.”

“I’m allowed to have a life outside of this
house. I’m your wife, Lashan. Not your maid.”

“I will not be made a fool by you because what
I give you is not good enough.” His words left me cold. I wondered how much he
knew. Until a week ago, the only thing that I had done wrong was not tell him
the truth about where I was every day. I didn’t lie, I just omitted it. But
now? I’d done everything wrong.

“Made a fool?” My voice was tiny.

“I have a merger to think of. What do you
think those people will say of my ability to run a firm if I can’t even keep my
wife under control?”

Relief washed over me that he didn’t know
about Donald. And almost immediately it was replaced by anger.

“
Control?
”
I asked, narrowing my eyes. “This is about you
controlling
me? Since when am I an object of possession? I have the
right—“

“After what I’ve done for you? You have no
right at all. I didn’t marry the girl my parents chose for me. I married
you
even though you had no bloodlines to
speak of and your idea of riches was ‘a large family’. I didn’t have to take
you on.”

“Well, how noble of you to pity me,” I spat.
The anger had changed into full on rage. Who the hell was he to make it sound
like he’d been doing me a favor when he’d married me?

“I loved you,” I said, barely audible. I
didn’t look at him.

“What’s that?” he asked, leaning closer. His
eyes were still full of menace.

“I said I loved you!” My voice was rising, I was
screaming now. “I loved you; I married you because I loved you. Your money was
just a bonus, but I would have been happy to go without it if it meant that I
could have you. You used to mean something to me.” I could feel the emotion
bubble up in my throat. My voice cracked. “Why did you do it? Was it so that
you would look merciful? Was I your charity case?”

He let go of me, shoving my hand away from
him. He turned and walked away from me.

“I don’t have the time or the energy for this
kind of nonsense,” he said. “We’ll talk about it again when you’ve pulled
yourself together and you can be rational.”

I shook my head. Something snapped inside of
me.

“No.” I said. “I need to leave. I need space
to think this through.”

Lashan stopped in his tracks, his back still
to me, but I could see how rigid he had gone.

“What?”

“I said I won’t do this anymore. I’m not a
maid. And you can’t wear me on your arm like something expensive you can brag
about.”

Lashan turned around, a lazy grin on his face.
“Oh, sweetheart,” he said in a syrupy voice. “I didn’t realize you saw yourself
as expensive.”

I heard a loud crack, and something else
snapped inside of me. Something bigger.

“You bastard!” I shouted and flung myself at
him. I was ready to claw his eyes out. To hit him in the face. To leave marks
on his skin. But he was a lot bigger and stronger than I was. And faster.
Before I managed to do any damage, he moved towards me and pinned me against
the wall.

It hurt. His nails dug into the skin on my arm
where he held me with one hand. His other hand was around his throat and his
face was pushed up so close to mine. I couldn’t breathe; his hand was an iron
clamp, choking me. It was ironic how many times he’d been this close to me and
I’d embraced him as a lover.

White spots danced in my vision, and
everything was laced in black. Lashan’s eyes were empty. Merciless. I saw death
in them.

I heard a wild roar, and raw power gushed
through me, spinning around the room. Loose papers flew up in a whirlwind of
emotion. I wondered vaguely when Lashan had become so powerful.

But then Donald was in the room, big and
angry. He was still in human form, but he seemed bigger than usual. My knees
buckled, and when Lashan saw we had company he let me go. I sank to the ground,
coughing and heaving. My throat was raw.

“Who are you?” Lashan demanded. He didn’t look
scared.

“Don’t you touch her again,” Donald warned,
and his eyes promised death. “If you lay one finger on her, you won’t make it
through the night.

“This is personal,” Lashan hissed with fangs
bared. “Is he your side dish?” he asked me, his eyes still on Donald.

I couldn’t answer. Before I had a chance to,
Donald roared again, and fear hung like a cloud in the room. It was Lashan’s.

They circled each other, sizing each other up.
I didn’t know how Lashan thought he could win this one. Donald was in a class
of his own.

Lashan charged forward, and attempted to bite
Donald, but he deflected him easily, and sent the vampire spinning into the
ground.

“You’re making a mistake,” he said calmly.
Lashan looked at Donald like he was going to strike again, but instead he
rushed towards me, and grabbed a handful of hair.

“If you don’t get out of here now, she’s going
to get really hurt,” he said. I couldn’t believe my own husband was using me as
a bargaining chip. A hostage.

“Lashan—“ I started but he squeezed tighter
and my sentenced trailed off in a moan. I watched Donald. He stood casually,
his hands in his pockets.

“Let her go,” he said. “If you do, I won’t
kill you.”

Lashan barked a laugh, but just tightened his
hold and yanked slightly on my hair for effect. The sound of my voice seemed to
be what set Donald off. He started shifting. His skin became stubbly with hair,
until it was a thick coat of brown fur. His teeth sharpened into a mouth with a
bad attitude, and his muzzle lengthened. He almost tripled in size. Within
seconds the giant bear stood where Donald had.

Lashan finally saw reason, and let me go. I
tumbled back to the floor. He backed up until his back was against the wall,
and then he shimmied his way around the room to the door that led to the
kitchen.

“You can have her,” he spat. “She’s worthless,
anyway.”

Donald didn’t answer. He waited until Lashan
was gone, before he shifted back into a human. He crouched down next to me.

“Are you alright?” he asked, brushing the hair
that had escaped out of my face. I wanted to say yes but instead tears ran over
my cheeks and my hands trembled when I tried to wipe them away. My vampire
mate, my partner for eternity, had just threatened my life.

“How did you find me?” I asked.

“Your blood calls out to me. Not in a
food-way. I don’t know how to explain it. It has from the start. When you were
in trouble, I had to come.”

He wrapped one arm around my shoulders, and
the other arm under the crook of my knees. I curled into a ball against his
chest. He picked me up like I weighed nothing, and carried me into the night.

THE
END

If
you or a loved one is suffering from domestic violence please reach out to your
local church, battered women's' shelter, or contact The National Domestic
Violence Hotline www.thehotline.org or 1−800−799−7233.

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