Her pleasure feeds mine, amplifying it until I'm drowning in sensation. The bear is right at the surface now, lending strength to my movements, sharpening my senses until I can hear the rapid flutter of her heartbeat, smell the sweet musk of her arousal, feel every tiny ripple of her inner muscles around my cock.
"That's it, sweetheart," I encourage as she begins to move with me, finding our rhythm. "Take what you need. Take all of me."
The truck rocks with our movements, the windows fogging from our combined heat. Christine's eyes are half-closed, her lips parted in silent ecstasy as I drive into her again and again. Sweat trickles down her neck, pooling in the hollow of her throat before sliding lower to the curves of her breasts.
I've never seen anything more beautiful in my life.
"Mine," I growl, the word torn from somewhere deep inside me. "You're mine, Christine. Say it."
"Yours," she gasps immediately, her nails digging into my shoulders. "I'm yours, Marc. Only yours."
The bear roars its approval, and I feel the shift beginning. Not now. Not yet. I can't lose control, can't let the animal take over when she's so vulnerable beneath me.
But my body has other ideas. I can feel the fur rippling beneath my skin, my muscles swelling with the change. My senses sharpen further, until I can smell not just Christine's arousal but the specific chemistry of it, the hormones and pheromones that mark her as my mate.
I increase my pace, driving into her with a force that would worry me if I couldn't feel her responding, couldn't see the pleasure overtaking her features. I need to finish this before the shift takes me completely. Need to claim her fully as a man before the bear emerges.
"Marc," she moans, her body tightening around me. "I think I'm... I'm going to..."
"That's it, sweetheart. Come for me. Let me feel you." I grind against her, making sure to hit the spot that makes her gasp with each thrust. "Let go. I've got you."
She orgasms, her body arching off the seat as pleasure overtakes her. The sight of her coming undone beneath me, around me, is enough to trigger my own release.
"Don't stop," she begs, her eyes wild and desperate. "Finish inside me. Please."
The permission is all I need. With a roar that's more animal than human, I bury myself to the hilt and let go, emptying myself deep inside her. The bear howls its triumph as I mark her in the most primitive way possible, my seed filling her, claiming her.
But the victory is short-lived. As the waves of pleasure begin to recede, the shift reasserts itself with undeniable force. I can feel my bones beginning to change, my hands transforming into something that could hurt her.
"Marc?" Christine's voice seems to come from very far away. "What's happening?"
I have to get away from her. Have to protect her from what I'm becoming. With the last shreds of my human control, I pull out of her warmth and stumble toward the door, nearly ripping it from its hinges in my haste.
The cold night air hits my overheated skin like a shock, but it does nothing to stop the transformation. I stagger into the darkness behind the gas station, my body twisting and reshaping itself with painful ardor.
"Marc!" Christine's voice follows me, along with the sound of fabric rustling as she tries to follow. "What's wrong? Talk to me!"
I want to tell her to stay away, to run, to forget what she saw. But it's too late. The bear has emerged, six hundred pounds of muscle and fur and primal instinct. I'm trapped inside it, watching through its eyes as Christine appears at the edge of thetree line, her clothes hastily pulled on, her face confused and concerned.
She freezes when she sees me, her eyes wide with shock. "Marc?"
The bear—my bear—recognizes her voice. It knows her scent. And instead of attacking or running, it simply sits back on its haunches and waits, watching her with what I can only describe as expectant patience.
This has never happened before. In all the years I've been shifting, I've never maintained this level of awareness, this control over the animal. But then, I've never shifted with my mate present.
"It's you, isn't it?" she asks, taking a hesitant step forward. "Marc?"
I nod the massive bear head, a gesture so human it must look absurd on such a creature.
"You're a... a bear? Like, a werewolf but with bears?" She takes another step closer, and I'm stunned by her courage. "That's why you ran? Because you were turning into... this?"
Another nod.
"Can you change back? Can you explain what's happening?"
I concentrate, focusing on my human form, on drawing the bear back inside. It resists at first, but the presence of our mate seems to calm it, to make it more willing to yield control. The shift reverses, a process almost as painful as the original transformation, until I'm kneeling naked on the floor, human once more.
"Christine," I gasp, my voice raw from the change. "I'm so sorry. I never wanted you to find out like this."
