Billionaire Bear’s Human Mate by Alicia Banks
Chapter 17
Vivica
Even as Vivica was leaving, in her heart she wanted to stay. Now that she was back in a sleazy hotel as Shane called it, she felt even worse about it. She shouldn't be there. She should be with Shane because it was just where she was supposed to be. She had no rhyme or reason for those feelings or anything to tell her otherwise. It was just a feeling really that came over her and once she left his side, she felt him gone more than she thought she would.
She kept replaying their time together and she had a mix of feelings about it. It wasn't like anything she had ever imagined it would be. Vivica knew enough about sex, just like most people. She heard all about it, but what she didn't get was how passionate and fulfilling it would be. She also didn’t hear about how overwhelming the experience had been.
Surely, what they had done was not normal. Not only had he turned into some kind of beast in the middle of it, but he had been so forceful. So wild. Vivica couldn’t imagine that normal people did it that way. What they had done didn't seem normal at all. She wouldn't have been surprised if it had never been done before in all of the world.
She blushed at the thought, still feeling his hands on her body. She couldn’t stop thinking about it. Not only was she back to sleeping in squalor and not really knowing where her next meal was going to come from, but she had this aching hole inside of her that only Shane could fill. It was misery all around.
Vivica wanted to go back. Part of it was curiosity because she wanted to know what he was. Obviously, that wasn't anything new. She wanted to know everything there was to know about Shane. What he really was, what he was capable of. She had so many questions, and for the life of her, she never got an answer.
Vivica knew she couldn’t go back like nothing had happened, not after the way she had run out of there. She knew better. She wasn’t even considering the part of what he was. He might not be too happy that Vivica found out.
She had gone to the library several times and read until her eyes were almost cross, but she still had no answer to what Shane was and what it all meant. She wanted to believe that everything would be okay, but it didn’t appear that way. Shane had done something to her, she was sure of it. Vivica was permanently changed by him.
***
It was almost Friday and Vivica was going to run out of money quicker than she liked to think about. Everything had changed in such a short amount of time. Vivica hadn’t had to worry about the basics for a few weeks and she had gotten used to it. It was easy when she was with Shane. All she had to do was go to work and make plenty of money. She was going to miss the ease of that life, even if it wasn’t the life for her. It was nice while it lasted. Sadly, she couldn’t even get her first and last check from working. All of that was down the drain.
One thing that she realized when she was in the middle of her commiserating was that she had forgotten her key as well. The key to the storage container that had all of her belongings in it. It wasn't much, just a duffel bag and a few other things, but it was everything that she owned. She had a few pictures in it, a few clothes, and that was it. The problem was when a person had only a few things in the whole world, it was hard to walk away.
Vivica couldn't do it. She was thinking about it, and it made her upset to think of losing all of her possessions. Now that she wasn’t working with Shane, she would have to find another job and she needed her ID. It was in the storage, and it wasn’t something that she could leave.
She had never figured that she'd be in this position. Vivica never once considered that she would find out something so explosive about somebody and have to go into hiding. She was already in hiding from everyone and everything, cops, lawyers, anyone that was going to stop her from doing what she was doing. But now, she had to hide from a man-beast? Vivica couldn’t get her head around it. Worse yet, she still wanted him, man-beast and all.
Even knowing what she did, which wasn't much, Vivica still thought about Shane before she went to bed at night, and it was the first thing that she thought about when she woke up. It wasn't the soft sheets for the bed that she missed, it was the warm body that had occupied the bed next to her.
Vivica thought about going into work on Monday and picking up her check. If she had the guts, that was exactly what she should have done, but she was too nervous. Vivica was afraid of running into Shane and making a fool of herself.
She called the HR department to see if they would mail it to her, but by the time she got on with someone, they quickly routed her back to Shane’s office. As soon as he said anything she hung up. Vivica didn't have the fortitude to talk to him. She had nothing to say.
Vivica was just going to have to let that money go. It was hard to do, considering what she was going to have to do to replace it.
So, Friday night, she went to the same bar that she had been to many times before. She waved to the bartender and as long as they turned a blind eye, she would always throw them a little bit of money at the end. It had worked in the past and it had to work now. Just because she had gotten a taste of a different reality for a couple of weeks didn't mean that anything changed. This was what she did. She was a hustler. It wasn’t what Vivica wanted, but when had she ever really had a choice?
***
The weekend was successful, and Vivica was feeling pretty good about everything. There was a time when she was questioning everything, second guessing her abilities and her choices, but it was a new day. Vivica needed to instead worry about moving forward. She wasn't going to backtrack. She couldn't. Shane was not even human, so there was no point in thinking about him anymore.
Her next focus was getting her few belongings out of the storage locker. It took a little convincing with the man in the front to get her another key, especially since she didn't have an ID, but men were easier to deal with because all she had to do was put her tits out and twirl her hair around her finger a couple of times, smile vapidly, and they're all hers. It was easy enough and worked like a charm.
When she wasn't expecting though, she heard a voice behind her when she put the key in the slot. Vivica jerked from the sound and felt her blood pressure going up. Her hands were now shaking, and she turned around slowly, not wanting to see the man behind her. The man-beast had found her. Was she about to be gobbled up?
“How did you manage to get another key? I've been sitting here waiting for four days.”
Vivica didn't need to turn around to see who it was. She knew that voice anywhere and her insides started to quiver. She didn't know if it was because of what he had done to her and her body's need for more of that, or if it was fear. To be honest, Vivica was pretty sure that it was a little bit of both. Shane was overwhelming and satisfying.
Vivica's whole body was trembling by the time she turned around to face Shane. Did she really think she whould be able to stay away from him? That he wouldn't find her? Vivica should have known better. He had money, resources, and probably a lot of other things that she had no idea about.
“What are you doing here?”
“Like I said, I've been waiting for you.”
Vivica shook her head. “There is no reason for you to wait for me.”
“You took off and didn’t even give one damn reason. You didn’t even try to explain yourself. After the night we had, you just left. I fell asleep and didn't realize you were gone for a couple of hours and by the time I woke up, there was no finding you anywhere. Why would you do that to me?”
Vivica tried not to feel bad about it. It was something that had to be done. Obviously. She couldn’t see if he knew what she knew or not. Vivica was still playing her cards close to her chest. She wasn’t about to reveal them quite yet.
“Please just let me get my stuff, so I can leave.”
“Why do you want to leave?”
“I really don't want any trouble, Shane. Just let me go.”
Shane grinned and then shook his head like he was sad about something. “The problem is, Vivica, I can't let you go. You see, part of me has claimed you as my mate and as you know, I'm not exactly human. But what you don't know is that we mated for life, so you can't get rid of me.”
Vivica didn't want to hear anything that he had to say. She was backing up, trying to get around the corner, so that she could get a straight shot run out of there. He would probably catch her, kill her, and she wasn't even sure what he was talking about as far as mates and all of that. Vivica was just trying to make a run for it. He must have seen it, and he clicked his tongue and told her not to try it.
“I know that you want to run, and I know that you were a little freaked out, but you need to listen to me. We need to work this out.”
“Need to?”
“I told you, you're mine now.”
“And I told you that I need to leave.”
Vivica was inching to the side, hoping that she would get a few seconds’ head start. Vivica wasn’t sure what that was going to do, but she was hopeful that she could get out of there, find someone as a witness, and then Shane wouldn’t be able to do whatever horrible things that he was planning.
Shane moved with lightning speed and was in front of her in moments. Shane was cutting her off before she even got started.
Then, he was pushing her against the wall, pinning her with his own body and a strength that she quickly realized she was no match against. She pushed on him once or twice, but then gave up. She wasn’t going anywhere, until he wanted her to.
“What do you want?” Vivica’s eyes were glistening with tears. Shane was bringing back too many feelings of fear. She didn’t know what to think of any of it, of him. Vivica was convinced that Shane could see through her and she looked away.
“I just want to talk to you.” His voice softened.
“I can't talk to you like this, Shane. I can’t think when you are all up on me like this.”
He backed up a little bit and he had a frown on his face. “You certainly weren't worried about it when I was inside of you. I was all up on you, and you were just fine with it.”
Her face was turning red, heat running down her neck. “That was before...”
Vivica couldn't even bring herself to say it out loud. She didn't even know what the hell ‘it’ was, so how could she ever name it? She didn’t even know what to name it to herself, when the whole time she was trying to forget all about it. Vivica's head was spinning. She was trying her best to stay with it, but when she was near him, his body touching hers, rubbing against her, it was damn near impossible. She was convinced that he was trying to make her go crazy.
“That's before you found out what I am?”
“I don't even know what you are, Shane.”
He smiled and had a little bit of a proud expression on his face. She could tell that he wasn’t going to pretend that she didn’t know. Vivica was waiting for answers, even if she was scared to death of them.
“I am a bear shifter from an ancient, royal line that has lived in this area for centuries.”
Vivica didn’t even know what to say to all of that. She was trying to break down the sentence, it was only a few words but there was so much meaning behind them, that she couldn't even get her brain to comprehend it all. She knew all of the words individually, but put together in a sentence, she was lost. Bear shifter? Ancient, royal? Centuries? What did all of that mean?
“What is a bear shifter?”
“I am a man that can turn into a bear.”
“A bear? So, it’s like being a werewolf?”
He sighed, shaking his head. “Why is that what everybody goes to? Yes, like a werewolf. You know, shifters turn into all kinds of things. They do a couple of movies about wolves and now that is all that everybody thinks about. It's kind of frustrating you know. They aren’t even on the top of the pile.”
Vivica thought that her head was spinning before, but now she was starting to truly feel lightheaded. If he hadn’t been there, she would have melted to the floor. Vivica fainted, for the first time in her life. It was like her mind went on overload and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Bear shifter???
