Mated to the Wilde Bear

Laurel pulled back from Xavier, swiping at the last of her tears. She'd cried herself out and now her wits had returned enough to leave her mortified both for herself and her fox. She wasn't sure how he'd found her out here, but then, she didn't really remember how she'd gotten here either. Staving off the change for so long always did that to her. When she finally did give over to her fox, it was always a blur of panic as her animal raced for the safety of thickets and burrows. She didn't even remember shifting or leaving her house.

The breeze pricked at her bare skin, raising goosebumps along her arms and breasts. But the way her nipples hardened into tight peaks had nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with being on display for the hottest man she'd ever seen. First, he'd seen her fox and now... her everything else was exposed. Goodness, she was laid bare in the worst way right now.

She felt Xavier's eyes on her face but couldn't bring herself to meet his gaze. Her cheek burned as his eyes flickered down to the rest of her. "This is so embarrassing," she said, but Xavier's hungry gaze made it clear he felt no remorse in his perusal of her.

"Don't be," he said. "I'm enjoying the view."

He stood back just far enough to give her the same vantage point of his body. His broad shoulders tapered into a toned waist and below that, the largest cock she'd ever seen pointed directly at her. Every inch of him looked hard as stone. Delicious. She wondered what he tasted like.

Laurel's mouth curved because she couldn't help but agree. This view wasn't all that bad. Then she realized how disheveled she must look compared to him. She really hoped her nose wasn't running. "Sorry for falling apart on you like that."

"I don't understand. What made you so upset?" He looked away into the woods, searching. "Did something frighten you?"

"No, there was... it was me. I resisted the urge to shift for so long that when it came on me today, I couldn't fight it any longer. I shifted and panicked and ended up way out here. I can't even remember how I got here. And then you startled me, and I lost it. Sorry."

He hooked his finger underneath her chin and forced her to look up at him. She braced herself for judgment, or worse, laughter, but he only looked at her with concern. "Don't apologize for what you are. I've never seen a red fox before. You are beautiful, Laurel. Why do you hide it?"

She hesitated, terrified to share her secrets. She'd hidden her true self from everyone for so long. Xavier watched her with such earnest caring as if he really wanted to help. Besides, he was a shifter. He knew what it was like. Maybe she'd been wrong about him being the one to ruin her life. Maybe he was the only one who could help her keep it all together.

“I grew up in an anti-shifter house. My dad was human and thought shifters were unnatural. My mom was a fox, but I could see how she hated that part of her. Probably ingrained from her own parents. They were hard on her about her animal. Always making her feel guilty. Even as a kid, she taught me to be stronger than my fox, to resist the shift. She said giving in made me weak, and a shifter's weakness was discovery. When I couldn't help it, she taught me to keep it out of sight. Keep it a secret, she said, so no one could use it to hurt me. Most of the time, I did that, but sometimes, the fox would slip out, and my dad would scream at me. I walked around in constant fear I'd shift by accident and others would find out and degrade me in the way my dad had. I left as soon as I graduated and I've been doing my best to keep it hidden since then. I only shift when I can't stop it, and I always try to get away before anyone notices."

A life of hiding," he murmured. "That couldn't have been easy."

"I moved around a lot."

"Sounds lonely."

"I decided a long time ago; I'd rather be lonely than be with people who can't accept my fox. Before I came here, I was in the city, which made it hard to keep my fox out of sight." She gestured around them to the moonlit woods. "When DOT offered the transfer here, I jumped at it. I thought I'd have more space and maybe even people who could accept me as a shifter."

"Gerald's got no problem with shifters. He was friends with my dad."

"I know. I guess I've been too scared after everything in my past to even tell him, though." She blew out a breath; still half-terrified Xavier would scoff at her secret life. But he only stepped closer and stroked her hair, tucking it gently behind her ear.