Page 38 of OctoBEARfest

"Yeah, and before that you wanted to tell me something and I assumed it was 'hey, I know you used to be Emma Hart and I'vebeen hot for you since I was a teen,' which was about as wrong as I could be, so I think I won't try guessing again. What's up?"

"This is. Woo. I never did this before?—"

Gwen's jaw fell open. "You're a virgin?"

"What? No! What?No!" Whatever was bothering Bill, the question surprised him so much that he looked indignant. "I mean, I hope it wouldn't bother you if I was, but no! It's much weirder than that!"

"Being an adult virgin isn't that weird!"

"That's my point! No, I'm not a virgin, I'm a bear!"

Gwen opened her mouth to—she didn't know what. Laugh, say 'what?' herself, maybe make a comment about the thing he seemed to have about bears—and while she was waiting to find out how she was about to respond, Bill Torben changed into a bear.

It was the most incredible, peculiar thing she'd ever seen. He shivered, sort of, or twisted, or—something, she couldn't quite describe it—and changed, in the space of a heartbeat, from a big tall thick man to a perfectly enormous grizzly bear. Like, a truly trulyhugebear, not that Gwen had any real sense of how big grizzlies were, not up close and personal, but this one was obviously a magnificent specimen. He was on all fours, which didn't make much sense because he'd been standing on two legs when he changed, but on the other hand Gwen didn't know why she was concerned about minor things like that when amanhad justturned into a bearin front of her.

Gwen, in what she thought was a very moderate, calm, and reasonable response, said, "Holy fucking shitballs."

The bear laughed. It was obviously a laugh. How she knew it was a laugh and not a threatening huff, Gwen didn't know, but it was definitely a laugh. Then he changed back into Bill, who was standing on his own two feet instead of on all fours like would make sense, and was smiling like he'd just ended a laugh.Gwen said, "Holy fucking shitballs," again, and discovered she had somehow climbed over and behind the bench she'd been sitting on. She petted it nervously a couple of times, then edged back around to the front, although she stood with the back of her knees pressed against the seat rather than coming any closer to Bill quite yet.

She wasn't exactly scared, she didn't think. Flabbergasted. Mostly her mind was filled with variations on 'holy fucking shitballs,' and she thought it might take a minute to get past that. When she did, it was with a squeaked, "Why weren't you on your feet? Your, uh, your back feet? When you, uh, when you did that, you were standing on your, on your human feet," and oh God that sounded insane, but Bill had a small, encouraging, hopeful smile while she bumbled her way through the question. "But then when you changed you were on all four feet, why weren't you on two feet. And why weren't you on your hands and knees when you changed back again?"

"I guess because I was thinking of myself as standing, and humans stand on two feet and bears usually stand on four." He still sounded like a person. And looked like one.

Gwen's heart was beating so hard she thought it would probably crash out of her chest and fly away. "And you, um. Clothes?"

"Things I'm wearing shift with me unless I don't want them to, but I've never found a pair of jeans that will accommodate being stretched across a grizzly-sized ass. The Hulk," he said solemnly, "is really lucky with those purple shorts of his."

A brief, high-pitched laugh escaped Gwen, then turned into a series of real giggles as she sat abruptly, staring up at the big man. "An 'affinity' for bears, huh? Isn't that what you said? Your whole family is like this? Are you—are there?—?"

"There are more shifters than you'd think, yes, but not that many of us in the grand scheme of things." Bill crouched, clearlymaking an effort to be smaller and less alarming, but Gwen didn't think she was alarmed anymore. Or even sure she had been. Just astonished.

"You're okay," she said. "I'm not scared. Just…holy fucking shit."

He grinned lopsidedly. "Yeah, I know."

"I am on the pill, you know," Gwen said vaguely. Bill's eyebrows shot up and she said, "I assume that's why you wanted to tell me before we had sex. Because I assume there must be some chance of, you know. Baby bears?"

Bill thumped back on his butt, looped his arms around his knees, and laughed. "Ah. Right. No. I mean, yes, we don't breed a hundred percent true, but most shifter parents do end up with shifter kids. But I wasn't really thinking about unexpected pregnancies. I also have condoms," he added, almost as vaguely, then went red around the ears. "Hope springing eternal, and all that. No, I just…um. There's. Uh. More?"

"More. Than turning into a bear." Gwen held up a palm before he spoke. "Is it extremely,extremelyimportant that I learn this 'more' right now?"

The big man held his breath a moment, looking as if he was seriously considering the question. "I don't think so," he said slowly. "It's all kind of tied together, but…no. Not if the whole shifter thing isn't a dealbreaker."

"I don't think it is. I mean, it's not. It's…I have so many questions." Gwen laughed. "Somany questions. Like do you tell all your prospective partners you're a bear? You must be very selective if you do, because that can't be safe. But no, I'm good, I'm…" She stared at him a moment, then wet her lips. "Like, don't take this wrong, because I'm not intobears, per se, but…I mean, talk about meeting a guy in touch with his animal side. That's really…" She cleared her throat. "Really hot."

Bill's deep brown eyes went bright with a smile. "I have those condomswithme, just to be clear."

"I also have a recently-discovered yet long-held fantasy about getting fucked by a guy big enough to pin me up against a wall without being afraid I'd get dropped," Gwen said breathlessly. "But there aren't any walls around here."

"Who needs walls?" Bill rose in an incredibly smooth surge and strode to her in a couple of steps, lifting her off the bench, hands beneath her ass to wrap her legs around his waist. Gwen gave a startled squeak even as her entire body lit up with heat and need as his mouth found hers, although the kiss only lasted long enough for her core to turn molten before he broke off enough to laugh against her lips. "I didn't think this through. I should've gotten you nakedbeforeI picked you up, because now I don't want to put you down again."

For a couple frantic seconds Gwen tried to work out the physics of that before laughing in despair against his mouth in turn. "Nope, can't make it work. I can get to all ofyourimportant bits, but damn, I should've worn a skirt, big man."

He rumbled so deeply it ran through her bones, melting them before he kissed her again, long and deep and slow. She'd more or less forgotten her name by the time that kiss ended, and was trying to meld her body with his through two layers of denim and presumably some cotton underwear. Even through all of that he felt astonishing pressed against her center, a promise of complete satisfaction. She was just about to reluctantly get her feet back on the ground so she could yank her jeans off when laughter and voices came from farther down the trail, and they yelped against each other's mouths in dismay.

"Tonight," Bill breathed. "Wear a skirt for the show tonight, and afterward we'll pick this up right where we left off."

"I never wanted a performance to be over so bad in my life." Gwen was on the edge of throwing all caution to the wind,personally, but Bill, laughing again, put her on her feet, and bent to kiss her again just before a small crowd of hikers came into the lookout clearing.

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