Chapter 8
Suddenly, Grayson smelled a male grizzly bear in the area. He frowned. Shifter or one of the wild kind? He glanced at Kendra. She was smelling the air too. “Yeah, I smell him,” she said.
“Is he anyone you recognize?” Grayson asked, hoping the bear was a shifter like them, and she knew him.
“Sorry, no.”
He realized that it was the season when bears were mating, which could mean trouble for them if the bear took an interest in Kendra, if he wasn’t a shifter.
“But it could still just be a shifter. I mean, you’re new to the area. So if I hadn’t met you already, I wouldn’t have known you were a shifter. At least I hope he’s a shifter.”
“So do I.” They didn’t need a male bear chasing Kendra for some bear-loving.
Younger kept crisscrossing all over the place.
Though some of the displacement of the scent was due to the wind, they had to keep moving back and forth, finding where Younger had bent plants while he was moving through the denser forest filled with an undergrowth of huckleberries, beargrass, serviceberries, thimbleberries, chokecherries, gooseberries, and young conifers like Lodgepole Pine, willows, and Douglas firs.
All the berries were bears’ favorites, though they preferred them a little riper. But they still could eat them before they were ripe. They were not as nutritious or as sweet as the bears and humans preferred, but if they were hungry, the bears would eat them.
Then they saw a patch of very large, dark red raspberries.
They both paused to grab a few and fed them to each other, rich, firm, and juicy, a sweet flavor mixed with a bit of tartness.
They plucked some more raspberries from the thorny shrub.
They couldn’t help themselves. They loved berries.
Then they kept moving when a light rain started.
They both pulled rain gear from their backpacks and put on their jackets, not wanting to get their clothes wet, even though it was just a light shower for now. Staying in it for very long could leave them soaking wet.
He sniffed at the air again. He was hoping they would run into Younger, not a wild bear!
“Younger is going this way.”
Grayson agreed. The problem was that talking loudly would let the bear nearby know humans were in the area without startling him, but they couldn’t talk loudly without alerting Younger to their presence.
He glanced at Kendra, and she smiled at him as if they were just on a lover’s hike. He liked the idea for sure. He looped his arm through hers and continued to walk together, looking for signs of Younger.
After walking about a mile, Kendra said quietly, “I think we should shift into our bears, leave our clothes in our backpacks, and search for him.”
“Yeah, we’re far enough away from the trail. If we find his campsite, we’ll rip it apart,” Grayson said.
She smiled. “As grizzlies, sure. Great idea.”
“He won’t have a place to keep him dry, warm, and more comfortable while he’s out here.”
She pushed her hair behind her shoulder. “Exactly. We still might get caught in a downpour. It isn’t supposed to get really bad until later, but you never know when it will actually happen. Is your backpack waterproof?”
He stopped and looked around at the thick vegetation. “It is. I had the idea that if we got caught in the deluge, we could just grab our packs with our teeth and return to our campsite. No one will be running around in it, unless they’re trying to reach their tent.”
“We’ll still have to shift outside the tent to enter it. It’s not big enough to accommodate a couple of grizzlies.”
“I agree.”
Then they took off their backpacks, drank some more water, and started undressing.
If they hadn’t been interested in each other, like it was just a work mission, they would have just removed their clothes and shifted like they would with any other shifters. But she was just as intrigued with what he looked like naked as he was with her.
They smiled appreciatively at each other. Yeah, all over, he was just as well built as his chest and arms were. He was beautiful.
“You’re panting,” he said.
She laughed. “You encourage it.”
He smiled at her, showing off his charming dimples. Before he shifted, he embraced her and kissed her forehead. “We’ll fit just fine in that sleeping bag. One way or another.”
Even if they had to get nice and close and snugly. She was ready for it.
Then they separated, and both of them shifted. She loved seeing the grizzly side of him. He nuzzled her with affection. She licked his nose, and she swore he smiled at her. Then they got their attention back on their business and headed off to look for Younger.
Younger was moving from one area to another, sticking to the thickest vegetation, following deer trails, and trying to cover his tracks in case anyone came for him. What he didn’t know was that he should have used hunter concealment to hide his scent from the grizzly shifters after him.
Another mile into the forest, they found his campsite, and they were thrilled. But there was no sign of Younger. They tore up his camo tent with their sharp bear claws. They ripped through his mattress, sleeping bag, clothes, bags, and blanket.
Kendra shifted and opened his bear proof food containers. Normally, they wouldn’t encourage wild bears to come into Younger’s camp, but they didn’t want him to have anything he could use to survive out here on his own.
It started to rain, and they waited to see if Younger would return to his campsite for shelter. The rain was light to begin with, but Younger wasn’t returning. Kendra suspected he was still hiking or doing whatever else he needed to do to survive.
It started pouring. Rain could get rid of some of his scent, but it would still be on the plants and the ground.
Their thick grizzly coats, consisting of a dense, insulating underfur and long, coarse guard hairs, repelled the rainwater, and they felt right at home.
But then Kendra wondered if Younger was too far from his camp and had found an overhang or cave to take refuge in, and he wasn’t returning to his tent any time soon.
Then they smelled a grizzly bear approaching. Shifter? Or all grizzly? She figured the bear wasn’t a shifter, and the food in the camp was what drew it there. A shifter wouldn’t have come to investigate food, she didn’t think.
Kendra swung her massive bear head around and nudged Grayson’s shoulder to get him to go with her.
It was time to return to their own camp and then look for Younger again in the morning.
Though she would have loved to have taken him down tonight.
And she would have loved to have seen his reaction to his torn-up tent.
But with another grizzly in the area, they didn’t need to fight it. And if it were a male, mating time was from late spring, typically in May to July, peaking in June, and she sure didn’t want Grayson fighting another bear that was intent on claiming her.
She hadn’t really considered that scenario.
The last time she’d run as a bear was in September so she hadn’t had any issues.
This time, though, she didn’t have a choice because of going after Younger.
Even if she and Grayson had been in their human forms, they still would smell like grizzlies to another bear, or any other critter they ran into.
Humans couldn’t discern what they were. As far as they knew, bears or other shifters were just humans when they were in their human forms.
Grayson kept glancing back at the camp, and she wondered if he was watching for the bear or for Younger.
She kept just moving quickly back to where they had left their backpacks because she didn’t want Grayson to get into it with another bear.
Though she would certainly be there fighting with him to make the bear back off.
Then they saw the bear enter Younger’s camp, and he watched them leave. He appeared more interested in the food than in looking for a mate. At least for now. She hoped that being a female bear wouldn’t be an issue as they continued trying to hunt Younger down.
They found their backpacks hidden in the undergrowth and yanked them out with their teeth.
She did worry that once the hungry bear finished eating, he might want some bear loving.
She hoped he didn’t come to their tent and shred it to get to her!
The first thing she thought of was karma after wrecking Younger’s tent.
They finally reached their tent and heard three men at their own nearby campsite, joking and laughing.
Kendra figured they were probably inside their tents in the pouring rain.
Kendra put her backpack in the tent, and then Grayson dumped his in there.
Kendra shifted and hurried under the awning and into the tent before she got too wet.
Grayson followed right after her, and while she was laying out the rolled-up sleeping bag, he brought out the camp towels for them to dry off. She unzipped the sleeping bag and opened it, watching him towel-dry his body, then his hair. Man, was he gorgeous.
He grabbed up another towel, since she was just gawking at him, smiled, and began drying her body, slowly, in a sensuous way that told her this was a prelude to much more.
Even his cock was beginning to rise. He began kissing her at the same time as he ran the towel over her hair, though neither of them had gotten very wet in the short time between shifting and diving into the tent.
She felt the faint rasp of the towel, its texture alternating between gentle friction and plush caress, every movement heightened by the contrast between its softness and the strength in his fingers.
He bent over her, his lips brushing her shoulder as he toweled off her left arm, and she let her head tilt back, giving him access to the clean sweep of her neck.
He nipped gently at the spot where her pulse beat, then soothed it with a slow lick, making her squirm and bite back a laugh that was a half moan.
He chuckled, the sound vibrating through both of them, and slid the towel lower, grazing the curve of her waist, the dip of her belly, each pass of the cloth more intimate than the last.
She ran her hands over his chest, touching his nipples with a teasing touch, making him chuckle. “Tickles,” he said, though his voice was rougher and deeper than she’d ever heard it.
Amused, she smiled and licked and kissed his neck. He rubbed his hard body against hers and tossed the towel aside. First lightly, then building up the momentum, he began kissing her again.
She couldn’t quit touching his well-developed chest, running her hands over his magnificent muscles. He reached down and began to stroke her between her legs. But she was beginning to feel boneless and had to lie down.
Feeling the heat of his body close enough to radiate against her own, she reached for him.
His own arousal was still evident, insistent, but he made no move to rush the experience.
Instead, he pulled her close, the towel slipping to the floor, and he kissed her—slow, deep, with a hunger that had been waiting through the entire wet, wild experience.
A tiny shiver ran through her shoulders as he kissed her throat.
He grabbed a dry towel and slipped it under her on the sleeping bag, and then quickly joined her.
Then he continued to pleasure her, stroking her, until her world felt like it was colliding in a climax of major proportions. She growled out loud.
Grayson loved hearing her growl with satisfaction.
With their enhanced bear night vision, they didn’t even have to have a lantern lighting their tent, which made them formidable nighttime foragers—and if that other bear wanted to find them, he could.
“Wow,” she said.
He thought the same thing.
He spread her legs and slid inside her, then began to thrust. The impact was exhilarating. She ran her hands over his back, caressing and scratching with her long nails in an erotic way. Arching her back, she connected with him as he pressed in deeper, kissed her breasts, and licked her nipples.
“Ohh,” she groaned.
“Good, huh?”
She smiled and squeezed his buttocks as he continued to thrust into her. She felt divine. He loved this with her.
He ground against her as he continued to slide deeper into her. Then he was coming, and held off, trying to prolong the moment. But she was caressing his skin, making him tense, and he couldn’t hold off any longer.
Then he came in an explosive way and collapsed on her in bliss. “Man, you are amazing.”
“You are too.” She held onto him tightly, and he loved her warm embrace. Then he wiped himself and her off, zipped the sleeping bag closed around them, and cuddled. “We fit.”
“We sure do. We’ll leave in the morning when it’s really early, right?” he asked.
“Hmm, normally, yes, but with sharing the space with you, I might need some convincing to leave the sleeping bag in the morning.”