Read The Bear In Me: A BBW Bear Shifter Romance for Free Online Page B

have lost themselves in the animal and forgotten how to revert back into human form. It’s all about balance.”
                 
    Emily’s first try to let out the Bear was painful. Almost like the first time she’d lost her virginity, the sort of raw natural aching and stabbing pain that followed every intimacy. Lily had clapped tremulously beside her, sitting cross-legged on a bed of moss, the small folds of her pubis peeking out against the shade.
                 
    In Form, Emily was a long legged brown bear, the color of chestnuts in fall. She loved the feel of the earth under her as she ran with the other two through the forest, the many scents of the wilderness filling her nose. It was exhilarating, almost ecstatic, to frolic so carelessly. The world took on a new sort of perspective; it was more alive, more colorful, more vibrant now that she had accepted the Bear, and in kind, the Bear had imbued her with sharper senses.
                 
    Now, when she went to the hospital she was surprised at the clarity of sound and image, almost as if someone had washed the thin veneer of dust off the lens of her life.
                 
    The hospital was a source of productivity and accomplishment for her. Most of the doctors and other nurses were just as casual about their jobs as everyone else in Fairbanks seemed to be. It didn’t preclude laziness, they just didn’t seem to get stressed over anything. If a problem arose, they all accepted it as an inevitable and went about their business trying to fix it as quickly and efficiently as possible. Not like the big city hospitals , she thought to herself. There, it was always stressful. Before Fairbanks, she had taken it as a fact of life that one needed to get riled up over the smallest fuss. There was also less gossip in the Denali Center, and that was a relief to Emily, who had usually been at the focus of such talk.
                 
    It was the eve of her month in Alaska when she heard a knock on her door and opened it to see Sam smiling at her. Emily only had on a hoodie and her panties, but her attitude about nakedness had changed since arriving. She smiled back and invited him in again as she fished around for a pair of clean pants.
                 
    “Are you sure you don’t need a cleaner?” Sam said, motioning to the catastrophe that her living room had become. Since she’d always lived alone, the state of her apartment had always been one of disorientation.
                 
    “Nah, it’s always like this,” she said, flinching.
                 
    “If you say so, lovely butt,” he said heading for the kitchen, and pinched the bottom of her buttocks as he passed by her.
                 
    She blushed and pulled on a pair of older jeans with a hole in the knee, and looked back toward the sink where he filled himself a glass of water and drank it all in one gulp. In the month she’d been here, she’d become very close with Lily and Sam. It was a consequence, she knew, of being able to be herself around them, and everything that came with it. It was the first time. And yet, even though she knew that Sam aroused her, she still found herself adamantly denying she was attracted to him. It was fear, mostly. Fear of what it would actually mean to be that close to another human being. In a way, she longed for the relationship that he had with Lily, something that was fraternal, familial. It seemed simpler that way, less messy. And yet, as she pulled up the zipper on her jeans and watched him she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if they were closer.
                 
    She bit her lip. Was he even interested in her that way? Certainly, there was a degree of closeness, but she was uncertain about how far that really went. As far as she knew, he considered her a friend in the same way he thought of Lily as a sister: simply