So Much To Bear (A Werebear Erotic Romance) by Bethany Rousseau

pleasant. While none of her close friends, save for Robert,
had been in the mob, she still felt uncomfortable in their midst.
She let them believe that she was making an early return to the
university to get a head start on her last semester; it was much
easier than admitting what she really had in mind. Robert attended
the party and Jennifer danced with him—though she didn’t enjoy it
nearly as much as she would have a week before. It was too
difficult to dull the memory of him plunging a knife in Damon’s
back. If Damon had been killed, it was still Robert’s fault, and
something she could never fully forgive him for. If Damon lived,
she might be able to completely forgive him one day, but she still
thought that things would never be quite the same between
them.
     
    When she left the party by herself,
walking home in the darkness, Jennifer said silent goodbyes to all
of the landmarks of her mostly happy youth. She had hugged her
friends goodbye, not telling them that regardless of what happened
with her degree, she had no intention of ever returning to the
town. It was nothing but ashes to her now, dull and gray from what
she had seen in the woods. Jennifer climbed into her bed, knowing
what she had to do the next day and uncertain as to whether she
felt more hope or dread at what she might find.

 
    Chapter Eight

 
     
     
    That night, she woke up again and
again, plagued with dreams both tantalizingly pleasant and
terrifyingly upsetting. In one, she came to Damon’s cave and found
it just the way she had the day of the mob, empty of his presence
save for a smear of blood on the floor. Jennifer climbed down from
his cave and ran through the woods, searching for any sign of him.
Her heart pounded in her chest the same way it had the day of the
mob, and she felt the same urgency to locate him. He had to be
somewhere—she would know if he had died, would know for certain
instead of feeling the deep pangs of uncertainty.
     
    Jennifer ran through the woods until
she felt as though her heart might burst, tears streaming down her
cheeks. She had to find him.
     
    Jennifer heard something moving up
ahead and turned to try and see it—but just when she thought she
might catch sight of Damon, instead she saw Liam, leering at her
the way he had the night she had first met the werebear. “You
really are an idiot, you know,” Liam said, coming out of the
darkness of the trees. “You should have known better than to think
you could just turn me down.” He came towards her with the knife,
and Jennifer scrambled backwards, more frightened than she thought
she could ever possibly be by Liam. Before he could reach her, she
woke up, drenched in sweat, her heart pounding.
     
    It took her a while to fall back asleep
after that, but Jennifer plunged immediately into another dream.
She felt warmth, and yellow-orange light filtered through her
closed eyelids. Opening them, Jennifer found herself once more in
Damon’s cave, wrapped up in blankets on his bed. She trembled,
lonely and aching for him. As a soft whimper left her lips, she
felt Damon’s warm, strong arms wrapping around her and inhaled the
smell of lemony, earthy musk that made her whole body relax. “Where
have you been, Jenny?” Damon asked her in a low voice, and Jennifer
felt the roughness of his beard against her neck, the soft
counterpoint of his lips caressing her sensitive skin. Jennifer
moaned, turning her head to catch sight of the man she hungered
for.
     
    Damon pulled her close, and Jennifer
let her hands dance over his body, shaking from the feeling of
relief that flooded through her. There was no sign that he had ever
been injured; Damon looked the same way he had the last night they
had spent together. Damon pulled her around on top of him, settling
her body against his as his lips dragged along her jaw before
sealing her mouth. Jennifer traced her hands over every inch of him
that she could reach, touching and caressing; he was both utterly
real