ARLO (LOST CREEK SHIFTERS NOVELLAS Book 1) Read online

  “I’ve been wanting to drink this for a while,” he laughed. “And what better excuse than to celebrate with a beautiful woman.”

  Poppy felt herself blushing again. Even though she had already let her guard down with him, she still found it hard to accept a compliment when she was so used to being bashed and brought down by her mom.

  “Cheers,” he said as their glasses clinked. “To another wonderful night.”

  “Cheers,” she smiled.

  She nuzzled up under his arm and he pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. It was such a strange feeling to be so close and comfortable with someone after spending so much of her life alone. But it felt so right, so natural.

  “Why aren’t you tied down?” she asked. The words seemed to fire out of her mouth before she was even aware that she was saying them.

  “I’ve just never met the right girl,” Arlo said. “I always wanted to feel something so powerful and intense that when I found it I would instantly know. And that’s never happened before… Well, it hadn’t until yesterday.” He looked at her deep in the eyes and ran one of his fingers down her cheek. Poppy was a tangle of nerves and desire, and she wanted to tell him that she felt exactly the same way, but she didn’t know how.

  “It’s going to take someone very special to love and understand me,” he said almost sadly. “And having lived all my life in Lost Creek, I know that person doesn’t exist here.”

  Poppy wanted to ask him why, but she was too nervous. She wanted him to continue, to open up, to tell her it all.

  “I know this is crazy,” he said as his lips grazed against hers. “But the second I saw you, I knew that you were going to be mine. I was drawn to you in a heartbeat and I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind ever since.”

  She pulled him close to her and kissed him again. This man was so big he could crush her with both hands, but his words were so soft and gentle and full of love that she couldn’t control herself. He was like no one she had ever met before, and she knew that she would never find anyone like him again.

  “Arlo,” she whispered as she looked into his eyes. “I’m so glad I came here to Lost Creek, you have no idea.”

  They sat together and looked up to the stars. Her heart was pounding and her mind was racing. Everything about their time together felt so right, but there was still something that she couldn’t put her finger on. What was it that was making him so different?

  “Why aren’t you with someone?” he asked her.

  Poppy thought about it for a moment, and she realized that she didn’t even know herself.

  “After college, I moved home and I’ve been stuck in a rut ever since,” she finally admitted. “I just haven’t had the confidence or the drive to try and meet a man.”

  “No confidence?” he asked. “But you’re stunning.”

  “Thank you,” she said shyly. “I just don’t know. Maybe I’ve needed someone to pursue me like you have. For it to just feel right like this.”

  “Maybe we’ve been waiting for each other,” he said as he wrapped her hair up in his big, rough hand and pulled her face close to his. He was so strong she felt weak in his arms and as he kissed her again and laid her down on the cushions of the couch, she opened her legs wide and invited him to climb on top of her. His touch was incredible, and with each gasp of breath and kiss from his lips, Poppy felt herself opening more and more to him. She wanted him, she needed him, and each time his hand found another part of her, her nipples hardened even more.

  The stars above them twinkled high in the sky and as their bodies came closer together, Poppy was always melting into his arms and ready for anything. She wanted him, and as Arlo pulled his t-shirt over his head and revealed his huge, heaving muscles, Poppy couldn’t help but suck in a lung full of air. He was so much bigger than she ever could have anticipated, it was almost frightening. And as her eyes searched and explored each part of him, she saw his tattoo for the first time.

  There, right in front of her, was a big, grizzly bear right over his heart. Its claws and jaws were dripping with blood and its snarl was so ferocious she could almost hear it growl. Arlo followed her eye line down to it and picked up her hand and placed it over the bear.

  His skin was so hot it almost could have burned her and she realized, in that moment, that there was something very different about him indeed, something powerful and animalistic.

  “What are you?” she whispered bravely, but Arlo just smiled at her wryly, lowered her hand and moved forward to kiss her again.

  As his kiss hardened and his breathing became more rapid, Poppy knew that there was no way she could pull herself away. She was dripping wet with desire and her body was aching for him. She could feel the sharp poke of his cock on the inside of her leg and she was desperate to touch him. Arlo pulled roughly at the straps of her dress and ripped them down over her shoulders, exposing her perfectly pert and firm breasts. They were swelling with arousal and she held her breath as he lowered his head down and took one of her nipples roughly in his mouth. As he sucked and bit her gently, she gasped and moaned with pleasure. She hadn’t been with a man in such a long time, and he was so much more of a man than she had ever known, she was almost on the verge of unraveling before he had even gotten anywhere near her engorged sex.

  He came back up to her face and cupped her chin in his hand before he kissed her hard on the mouth. His tongue searched against hers and he moved down to her neck and squeezed her gently on the throat.

  “Arlo,” she panted, almost unable to take it anymore. She dug her nails into the skin of his shoulder and pulled them slowly down his back. “I need you to fuck me,” she whispered.

  He flashed her a wicked smile and pulled her leg up and bent it around him and in one fluid motion, he hooked his fingers into her panties and ripped them off, tearing them in two. Her cunt was so slick and juicy as he slid his finger inside of her she moaned and threw her head back, in ecstasy. He worked her over with his hand and she bit her lips to stop herself from screaming up into the night. But when she couldn’t take it anymore she bit him lightly on the neck and begged him to put himself inside of her.

  Arlo leaned back on his haunches and reached down for his belt. Poppy was squirming beneath him, panting and aching for his cock, and as he snapped his belt open and pulled down his jeans, all eleven inches of it sprang free.

  “Oh my god,” she whispered as he took hold of it in his hand and moved closer to her.

  He was so big, so fat and throbbing, she knew that he was going to hurt her, but she didn’t care. She had to have him.

  Her pussy dripped with excitement and as he teased her with his thick, red tip, she opened her legs wider and held onto his arms.

  “I hope you’re ready for me,” he grunted as he wrapped his free hand up into her hair and kept tight hold of her.

  As he pushed himself fully inside of her, Poppy gasped with delight. A sharp pain shot through her but it was gone in seconds as the intense pleasure warmed her insides and started to rocket through her. No man had ever made her feel so good. The sensation was so incredible it was overtaking every inch of her and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from cumming.

  She dug her nails into his back and gripped his huge frame tightly with her feet as he powered into her again and again. His breathing was frantic and his moans and growls so loud they were filling the forest around them. Poppy moaned into the night and as her release tensed up inside of her, she knew that she couldn’t keep herself back from the edge, she had to let herself fall over into a sweet ecstasy.

  As she unraveled beneath him, Arlo’s thighs tensed and his thrusts became harder. Seeing her convulse because of him, and knowing that he had done that to her was too much for him to bear. As he shot his hot, thick load inside of her, he groaned and felt as if part of his soul had been taken. He collapsed on top of her with his immense weight and kissed her neck as the last spurts of his release powered out of him.

  “Fuck,
” he panted into her ear as he kissed her cheek. “That was far too good.”

  Poppy looked up at him and tried to regain her breath. She had never been screwed so expertly in her life and no one had ever made her cum like that.

  “It’s like we were meant to fit together,” he panted.

  Arlo kissed her again and wrapped his huge arms around her.

  And even though she was far too exhausted to reply, she knew exactly what he meant.

  8.

  “I don’t want you to go back to your cabin tonight,” he said as they lay in his bed several hours later.

  After they had recouped from their crazy fuck under the stars, Arlo had swept her up in his arms and carried her into the house, to his room and made love to her again. Poppy was curled up into the nook of his arm, and they were both completely worn out and sticky with each other’s sweat.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” she smiled.

  She drifted off to sleep with the sounds of his breathing getting heavier beside her. It was so gruff and low, she was more sure now than ever that he was growling.

  Poppy awoke with a start in the middle of the night. She sat bolt upright and looked around the room. It took her a moment to remember where she was, but it was with relief that she realized that she was at Arlo’s and not in some stranger’s bed. She reached out for him but found her fingertips stroking the mattress instead.

  “Arlo?” she whispered as she looked around, realizing that she was alone.

  The moon had come out from behind the clouds and it was casting silvery light all down the decking, shining in through the huge glass doors and into the room. She was naked but she wrapped the bed sheet around herself and shuffled over to the doorway and looked down the hall. The house was completely silent and there wasn’t any sign of him in the front room or the bathroom.

  “Arlo?” she called again. But she knew that she was alone in the house; he was gone.

  She made her way quickly back to the bedroom and looked out the doors again. She slid them open slowly and stepped out into the night. It was chilly out there but she still felt warmed through and she was about to turn and begin to walk back toward the couch and fire pit where they had started their evening when she heard the sound of branches snapping in the woodland behind her.

  She froze and turned around slowly. Afraid of what may be lurking. She was sure that she could hear grunting and the sound of growls, and it was with horror that, when she turned and peered into the darkness behind her, she saw the outline of a big hulking beast. It was so big and covered in fur that as it slammed its way toward her, she almost fainted with fright.

  “No!” she screamed as she held out her hand as if that in any way could defend her.

  The bear was so big and powerful, the closer it came the more the deck bowed beneath its weight.

  Poppy tried to push herself backward, to make it back to the doorway and inside, but she was so frightened it was as if she was frozen to the spot. She closed her eyes tightly and covered her ears. She knew that this was it, there was no way she could outrun or get away from it. She was doomed.

  She thought of her mother and of how she knew that she would barely care… But then she thought of James and of what it would mean for him to lose his older sister. They had only really ever had each other, and now Poppy was going to go and get herself killed in the mountains by a grizzly bear. Even after Arlo had warned her of the dangers.

  She peeked out from between her fingertips and the bear was still right in front of her. She could smell the hot stink of its breath and it opened its jaws wide and wailed up into the night’s sky.

  Even though she couldn’t move her eyes from the beast in front of her, Poppy was aware of some movement out in the woodland behind it. She saw the flash of something darting quickly between the trees, and in an instant, the bear in front of her stopped and turned around as if it had sensed it too.

  Poppy was cowering on the deck, right next to the wall of the cabin, her heart pounding and her palms sweating, when, suddenly, Arlo emerged from the forest, completely naked and full of rage.

  The bear and he squared up to each other and Poppy’s mind was racing. Was any of this even real? Or was it just some crazy nightmare?

  “Arlo!” she screamed, but he was completely focused on the bear. He flexed his huge arms hungrily and bared his own teeth and Poppy suddenly saw something come over him that was both arousing and terrifying.

  The bear that had cornered her whimpered and lowered its head, it moved backward slightly, closer to Poppy, but with its shoulders hunched and its nose touching the ground.

  Arlo snarled again and when Poppy looked back at him, she couldn’t believe her eyes. The man who she had just spent the past several hours exploring every inch of was changing before her. His demeanor was fiercer and his eyes were burning with power. She cowered as she watched him snarl and take another heaving step closer, but this time, she could tell that something incredible was about to happen.

  He belted out a growl so loud it tore through the night and was so fierce it blew the hair back from her face from over ten feet away. He hunched his shoulders and his arms bulged with exertion, and in an instant, his skin seemed to rip open as a dark fur sprang up in its place.

  Poppy rubbed her eyes. Could this really be happening? What the fuck was she witnessing?

  Before her very eyes, Arlo turned from the handsome man she had got to know into a big, beast of a grizzly bear. His paws were so big and full of claws that they could have torn her apart.

  She wanted to scream but she was frozen. She wanted to run but her legs and feet were heavy with fear.

  The bear in front of her was also cowering and as Arlo moved forward quickly and lunged himself at the smaller bear, there was a flash of fangs, fur, and claws as the pair began to fight.

  Poppy tried to hide, but she was right there and she saw it all. Arlo was so big compared to the other bear, he was like no animal she had ever seen, and as he drove the smaller bear back into the woods, Poppy honestly couldn’t believe what was happening.

  She rubbed her eyes and breathed in deeply.

  “This can’t be real,” she whispered to herself. But then she was suddenly aware that the Arlo bear was back, and he was right in front of her.

  When she looked up and saw him right there, she looked into his eyes and she knew that it was definitely him. The man she had fallen for, he could shape shift and now it all made sense. This was why he was so hot to the touch, why he seemed so different and mysterious, why he had been so secretive and cryptic.

  She tried not to cry and to instead slow her breathing. The bear moved backward and seemed to heave in the moonlight and then, in an instant, it started to convulse and shudder as the fur began to disappear and the tanned, thick muscles returned in their place.

  Arlo stood there, back in his human form, and to Poppy, he had never looked better. He looked so alive and so powerful. It was intoxicating.

  “You’re my woman now,” he said with a pant. “And I’ll protect you no matter what.” His chest was heaving with exertion and Poppy could feel the bond between them. Something had most definitely changed.

  “What are you?” she whispered, even though now she really did know.

  “I’m Arlo,” he whispered. “And like I told you, it’s going to take a very special and understanding woman to love me.”

  And even though there was a sadness in his eyes, Poppy knew it would all be okay. Whether he knew it yet or not, she was most certainly that woman.

  9.

  Lost Creek was gearing up for its summer season and the town was already bursting at the seams with new arrivals. Since Poppy had arrived in town all those months before, she never could have imagined that she never would have ended up leaving.

  She wiped down the countertop in Arlo’s bar. Since she had settled in Lost Creek with her new man, a few changes had been made to keep up with the trade and demand. A diner just wasn’t cutting it anymore, the tou
rists in the town wanted a sports bar, and Arlo’s was the perfect venue to give it to them.

  Willow hummed a tune as she twirled her curly black hair around her long, manicured finger and blew a big pink bubble with her gum. The girls had become close over the months and it was good for Poppy to have a friend there. It had helped the place feel more like home.

  When her family had left, she promised James that she would call him regularly, and she had done so several times a week. He was fine back at home with her parents and was gearing up to make his own escape soon. He had his sights on college or travel, and Poppy knew that whatever he chose, he would end up in the right place. The place destined for him… Just like she had.

  After learning of Arlo’s secret, Poppy knew that she could never walk away from him. He had saved her life that night at his house, he had known that she was in trouble and he had come running. There really were bears in the woods around Lost Creek, but there was something more too… And she was still learning all about it with each passing day.

  She’d heard whispers from Willow that Arlo wasn’t the only bear shifter. That his close friends and some of the other original settling families had powers too, and that although it was a secret that was concealed from the majority of residents in the town, they were also being slowly discovered.

  “We have to help protect them,” Willow had said. “Both the bears and the wolves.”

  From what she had managed to piece together, that is what Arlo had meant by the town being divided. Two packs were in charge of Lost Creek, and tensions were rising.

  “Everything will be fine,” Arlo had assured her one night. “There’s nothing to worry about for you here.”

  He had kissed her and she knew that he would never lie. They were together now. They were each other’s other half and each day, although it brought its challenges, Poppy was more than grateful that she had found herself in such a unique and happy position after so many years of unrest.