Ravaged by Her Weretiger Prince (Steamy Paranormal Weretiger Shifter Romance) Read online

  My savior cautiously opened the passenger door. The flashlight shone blindingly as he held it between his teeth and crawled over the mangled interior toward me. He moved slowly, making sure not to cause any undo shifting as he assessed just how fucked over I really was.

  Judging by the look on his face, I didn’t think I had anything better than a slim chance in hell of making it out alive.

  “It’s going to be all right,” he repeated, popping the flashlight out of his mouth as he tried to undo my seatbelt. I whimpered, afraid that the moment I was rid of the belt that I would fall straight down into the chasm below. When the belt held fast inside of the buckle I felt a strange sense of relief, an irrational part of my brain telling me that as long as she was strapped in, I wouldn’t fall.

  “I won’t let you—” he began, but before he could finish the car lurched, the undercarriage scraping against the scarred asphalt and the back end rising just slightly off of the rear wheels.

  I screamed, renewed tears streaming down my blood-caked face. Now I was afraid that it wouldn’t just be me dying, but I’d be taking an innocent bystander with me, a good Samaritan cut down just for being a decent person. At least I won’t die alone, I thought.

  “Okay,” the paramedic said, trying to calm himself as much as he was me. “We’re going to be okay. I’m going to get you out right now, but I’m afraid that this is going to hurt—a lot.”

  More than the glass in my face or the broken leg? I wondered, turning my gaze toward him as though I could convey it to him telepathically.

  “No, don’t look at me,” he said, almost like he was chastising me. “Look straight ahead, and no matter what you hear, I need you to keep looking out the window.”

  Something in his voice gave me pause. But as he’d instructed, I looked straight out the window, blinking through the stream of blood and salty tears clouding my vision.

  I could feel him shifting behind me, grunting as though he was straining with something heavy. Then the car shifted back onto its rear wheels like more weight was being pressed down on it. I wanted to look, but his words rang in my ears.

  Suddenly his grunts turned into something much louder, a deep, ursine roar bellowing from where I had been forbidden to look only a minute before. Jesus Christ, I thought. What the hell is that?!

  I felt something pull on my seatbelt, tightening it around my throat for a moment before the sound of ripping fabric filled the air. I felt the pressure on my throat lift and I heaved a deep breath before coughing up a gout of blood from between my lips.

  I didn’t even have time to register that I had begun to slip out of my seat before I felt a big, furry hand gripping my upper arm like an iron vise. I screamed, suddenly aware of my plight as my head turned in panic toward my rescuer, only to find myself locking eyes with what I almost mistook for a massive bear.

  Seemingly without effort, the creature pulled me back into the car, dragging me over the center console and into the back seat. My confusion replaced itself with fear as I did whatever it took to save myself from being done in like Goldilocks. But despite my kicks and screams, the monstrous thing held fast onto my arm as it dragged me out onto the wet surface of the road outside.

  I looked around desperately, hoping to find the man who had tried to save me. Please, don’t him have been eaten. But no matter where I looked, there was no sign of the paramedic anywhere. I was alone. Alone, and about to be eaten by a bear.

  The creature stood over me, its long arms hanging at its sides. Something seemed so strange about it, about the way it looked down at me with something I could swear was intelligence in its eyes. The strange look it gave me made my think that it was making a decision, but about what, I couldn’t be sure.

  As I looked up at it my vision began to fade, the edges growing dim and creeping inwards until all I could see was the face of that bear as it came down on top of me, its jaws open wide.

  So this is how I die, I thought as everything went black. Not with a car crash, but with a bear attack…

  My nose was filled with the smell of cooking food and burning wood. I was warm, wrapped up in the softest blanket I had ever felt in my life and lying on a downy feather bed. My first thought as I came to my senses was that I actually had died and that I’d made it to Heaven.

  But before I could wonder what idiot had put me on the God’s “nice list,” I was greeted by a voice that seemed all too familiar.

  “How are you feeling?”

  I opened my eyes, turning my head to look up at the paramedic who had stopped to save me. Something felt strange as I stared up at him, taking in his handsome features and that head of wavy brown hair.

  “What happened to the bear?” I asked, trying to work through the haze that had fallen over my thoughts.

  “It’s gone. I—I drove it off after it pulled you out of the car.”

  “You saved me from a bear?” I asked, smiling even though it pained me.

  “Yeah,” he said, chuckling. “I guess I did.”

  “My hero,” I murmured, my voice groggy from the deep sleep I’d only just awoken from. “I don’t even know you name.”

  “My name is Cade,” he said, returning my smile as he sat down beside me. “And you’re Ashley.”

  “How do you know what my name is?” I asked, brows furrowing. Was he some kind of stalker? Was that why he was so quick to arrive on the scene? Had he been following me?

  As I asked myself a flurry of panicked questions, Cade plopped my purse down on the bed and quirked the side of his mouth up in a lopsided grin.

  “I may have looked through your purse. I managed to grab it before I took you up to my cabin after I… drove the bear off.”

  “Normally I’d be pissed at anyone who went through my bag, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt,” I said, relaxing as I felt a little more confident that my rescuer didn’t intend to keep me shackled in his bedroom Misery-style. “Where are we, anyway?”

  “My cabin,” he said, looking around the room. “The roads are washed out from all the rain and I don’t have a phone. So until the storm clears, I can’t take you to the hospital.”

  “No phone? Jesus, how do you live?” I asked, sitting up slowly. I thought that I’d be in agony, but to my surprise, I barely felt any pain as I moved into a more comfortable position against the headboard. I glanced down at my wounds, only to find that they not only looked much better than I had hoped, but they were already starting to heal.

  “Holy hell,” I breathed, my eyebrows raised. “I thought I’d only been here a few hours. My cuts are almost gone!”

  “You have only been here a few hours. The storm’s still going on outside,” Cade said, shifting nervously beside me as I began to examine myself, pulling the blankets away. I hardly even noticed that I was naked.

  “That’s not possible,” I said, looking up at him, “I had a broken leg. Hell, my face was all—”

  I reached up to touch where the countless lacerations had crisscrossed over my face when my windshield had shattered into a million pieces. But as I brushed the tips of my fingers over my cheek, all I felt was smooth, unbroken skin where I knew a mangled mess should have been.

  “Cade,” I whispered, my eyes wide. “What’s happening to me?”

  “Let me explain,” he began, biting on his lip.

  “Yes,” I said, “I think you should do just that.”

  “When I was pulling you out of the car—”

  “Wait,” I interrupted, my eyes narrowing. “You pulled me out of the car? I saw that fucking bear, Cade. It pulled me out, not you.”

  “I…” He faltered, turning away from me for a moment before looking me straight in the eyes. “I am the bear.”

  “No fucking way,” I said, leaning farther against the headboard. “You can’t be a bear. No one can be a bear and a person, Cade. What, are you some kind of weird werewolf thing, or something?”

  “A werebear,” he corrected, frowning a little. “I had to transform to get you
out of the car. And when I finally saw how badly you were hurt, I knew that I couldn’t save you. Not unless I did something really stupid.”

  “Couldn’t save me? What do you mean? I’m—” I stopped, looking into his eyes as a kind of apprehension dawned over me. “What did you do to me, Cade?”

  “I bit you.”

  I couldn’t speak. My throat constricted, strangling the words before they could form. Bit me? I thought, looking around the room, then back down to the red cut on my arm, only to watch as it began to knit itself up before my eyes. I wanted to scream.

  “If I hadn’t done it, you would have died,” he said, a kind of shame present in those sad, brown eyes. “If I could have kept you alive any other way, I would have.”

  “What happens now?” I whimpered. “Am I going to turn into a—”

  “Yes, on the next full moon,” he said, though somewhere in there I could tell he meant to say he was sorry.

  “Oh, my God,” I whispered, rubbing my hand over my face. How could I explain to my mother that I was some kind of bear monster now? “Every full moon?”

  “Until you can control it,” he said. “I was born into it, so I have some practice.”

  “Is there a cure?”

  “Afraid not,” he answered, “otherwise I would have taken it a long time ago.”

  “Is it that bad?” I asked, frowning as I watched Cade’s face become solemn.

  “It can be lonely,” he admitted, giving me a half-hearted smile. “You might notice I live in a cabin on the side of a mountain with no technology.”

  My heart began to slow as I mulled what was happening over in my head. I was now a shapeshifting bear creature who became a beast when the moon was full. I almost thought I’d hear Wes Craven yelling “Cut!” any second now.

  I looked at Cade, at the way he looked so ashamed of changing me into what he was. But he did it to save me, I thought. Shouldn’t I be grateful that he gave me a second chance? Complications and all?

  “I doesn’t have to be so lonely,” I said after the excruciating silence. “I mean, you and I are sort of in the same boat now, aren’t we?”

  “I guess you could think of it that way,” he said, once again giving me that faint, almost sad smile. It was adorable in its own “lonely dreamboat” kind of way.

  “And I am sort of your responsibility now,” I added, a smile touching at the corners of my mouth. “And, despite how fucked up this all is, I’m actually really grateful that you saved my life.”

  “You are?” he asked, surprise painted across his gorgeous face.

  “Well, yeah!” I said with a little laugh. “I mean, I’d rather be alive and have to deal with a monthly trip to the woods than be dead at the bottom of a cliff, wrapped up in the mangled remains of my car. So, yeah, I’m really grateful.”

  As I watched him smile, it felt like that sun had come out just to shine down on the two of us. My heart fluttered and I suddenly I began to appreciate just how good looking he was.

  “And,” I began, biting down on my lip, “I wouldn’t be opposed to showing you my appreciation.”

  “What do you mean?” he asked, but I was already slipping out from beneath the covers and kneeling at the edge of the bed in front of him.

  “You seem like a smart guy, Mr. Paramedic,” I said, grinning as my hands slid over his thighs, feeling the toned muscles bulging beneath his jeans. “You can probably figure it out.”

  I could hear him give an audible gulp as my fingers worked at his fly, pulling down his zipper as I looked up into his eyes. He looked so nervous, but as I slid my hand over the soft mound that hid beneath his boxers, I heard him moan approvingly.

  I worked his jeans off of his hips until they pooled around his feet, slowly working his flaccid dick until it began to stir from its hibernation. I couldn’t help but smile as his legs spread to allow me better access.

  “Ashley,” he whispered softly, his hips shifting as his cock grew, straining against the fabric that held it at bay. “I… you don’t have to do this.”

  “I want to,” I said, smiling up at him as I teased at his head, my nails trailing over the fabric where it bulged so perfectly. “You deserve a proper thank you for saving my life.”

  Maybe pre-werebear me wouldn’t have done this. But now that I knew I was different, I felt different, too. I felt vital, strong, and even horny. I wasn’t sure where that last part was coming from, exactly, but bears went into heat. Maybe I did now, too.

  I brushed my lips over his swollen shaft, kissing along its length to the sound of Cade’s gasps and moans. My free hand cupped his heavy balls, and I wondered how long it had been since a woman had touched them. He was so big, but even as I toyed with him through his underwear, I got the feeling that once unleashed from its prison, Cade’s dick would truly show its full length.

  Eagerly I slid my fingers beneath the elastic waistband of his boxers, pulling them down as I had his pants, slowly revealing the full glory of the werebear’s massive member.

  He wasn’t just long. He was thick, as well, packing a meaty rod that pulsed in time with his heartbeat. I bit my lip, wondering if I’d be able to handle the sheer girth of him with my mouth—but I was definitely willing to try.

  I slid my tongue up from the base of his cock, tasting the delicious saltiness of his skin. I breathed in the powerful scent of his musk, my heart quickening as it whispered to something deep and primal inside of me. I felt myself begin to slicken between my thighs, my pussy eager to get a taste of what my mouth was about to enjoy. That would be for another time, though.

  I wrapped my lips around Cade’s throbbing tip and began sucking him into my mouth. I was no amateur at giving head, but it had been a while since my last boyfriend, and none of the men before Cade had ever been so monstrously endowed.

  I slurped inch after inch between my lips, bobbing my head up and down until I could feel him sliding against the back of my throat. I’d never had a problem taking men deeper than other women could, and they seemed to always leave the happier for it, and I was determined to make Cade a very happy man that night.

  The more I sucked on him, the more I realize how much I loved the taste of him in my mouth, loved the way his dick felt against my tongue. I slid in all the way in, holding my breath before letting out a long, low moan right around his tip.

  The way he growled sent shivers through my body, electricity crackling up from the warm slickness that had begun to drip down my thighs. I’d never been so turned on in my life, and all I could think of was his warm seed gushing into my mouth.

  “That’s it,” I whispered catching my breath as I jerked his dick with my hand. “Just relax and let me do all the work.”

  I watched as he leaned back on his elbows on the bed, watching me as I stroked him nice and hard, popping his tip between my lips and sucking him like a lollipop.

  “I bet you don’t get this kind of a thank you when you save other women from their cars, do you?”

  He let out a shuddering moan, his eyes closed as he shook his head. I felt satisfied that no one had ever done something like this for him, had never thanked him in the most intimate way possible.

  As I stroked his dick, I began to feel that thick shaft swell, the pulse that made him throb quickening, signaling that he was almost ready. I smiled and wrapped his tip up in my lips again and bobbed up and down once more, my hand working his base as I lapped and sucked on his throbbing, purple tip.

  “Oh, God! I’m gonna cum!”

  Cade gasped and let out a deep, rumbling growl as his hips bucked. It took everything I had to keep my mouth around his cock as I felt the first hot burst of cum gushing up between my lips. I let out a moan as I felt another rope of his hot seed splash against my tongue.

  I lapped on his tip, tasting each expulsion of his essence coating my tongue. I eagerly slid him deep into my throat, delighting in the warm sensation of his cum gushing down it as I made him squirm out of control.

  My mouth slid from arou
nd his pulsating cock, still eagerly hoarding a mouthful of his seed. I gave him a grin as I looked him in the eye before swallowing his essence right in front of him.

  He gasped as he watched me, his mouth open and his eyes filled with satisfaction and desire.

  Smirking, I crawled up onto the bed beside him, running my tongue along my bottom lip to get a stray drop that had managed to escape. I trailed my fingers along his hips as I looked into his eyes.

  “So, how was that?” I asked, giggling as he simply stared up at me, speechless.

  “Wow,” he managed after almost five minutes as the two of us relaxed on his bed, my hands still sliding over his body. I’d managed to remove his shirt and had begun admiring the way his abs rippled beneath his skin.