An Unexpected Affair Read Online Free

sprouted thick brown fur.
    Shifting always started from the core outward. His torso would change first, and then a split second later his head, arms and legs would follow until he had transformed completely into a brown bear.
    Derek planned to go for a bit of an outing, head towards his favorite stream for an evening snack of raw fish perhaps. What he wanted the most was to get away from the farm for a while, so that there was no risk of picking up Clarice's tempting scent, which he knew would whip his hormones into even more of a frenzy.
    Only, things didn't turn out quite how he had planned.
    Once he had shifted and started running towards the stream that lay about halfway between the farmhouse and the nearby village, he couldn't clear his mind of all the thoughts and urges Clarice had stirred up. In bear form, he was even more susceptible to the attraction he'd felt toward her.
    The sights and smells of the woods did nothing to distract him. He could even still pick up her perfume, despite being almost a mile away from the farm.
    Once at the stream, all he could do was listlessly watch the fish as they struggled to jump up the fast currents. He didn't feel like reaching out and catching one. He didn't even want to cool his paws in the icy waters as he normally would have.
    None of it held much interest for him. Instead, Clarice's scent kept making its way into his nostrils, beckoning him to turn around and seek her out.
    He left the stream and didn't walk as much as drag his paws on the way back to the farm. His entire being was spurring him on to run to her, but he did his best to resist. He thoughtlessly wandered on, carving a path through the empty landscape that ran parallel to the road.
    For the first time in all the years he'd spent on his own, he wished for someone to talk to. He had to figure out why he was so affected by a human, of all things. He'd read of bears who had gotten so used to their animal form that they'd sought out the company of actual bears over their own kind, but never did he hear of anyone mating outside their species.
    To take a human mate was wrong, wasn't it? How would it even work, when the bears' code of secrecy insisted that humans should never find out about their existence? If she found out the truth about him, it would endanger his entire kind. Humans were afraid of what they didn't understand. If he tried to pursue her without telling her the truth, that would be equally wrong.
    And yet, he couldn't help how he felt about her.
    His brooding thoughts were interrupted by a fresh waft of her scent accompanied by footsteps against gravel.
Clarice
.
    Across his entire body, his fur stood up to attention, as if he was readying for a fight. He paused and got up on his hind legs, standing as still as he possibly could while observing her.
    What was she doing here?
    He watched as she walked along the road, clumsily stumbling over a particularly rough patch of gravel, until she recovered herself, phone in hand.
    When she reached the edge of the woods, she paused and looked around, raising her phone into the air and waving it around ahead of her. Finally, she let out a triumphant 'Aha!' and smiled, placing the phone back into her purse.
    Derek didn't have a cell phone, only a land line, which nobody ever called except telemarketers and tourists hoping to book a vacation. Still, he'd heard visitors say that most mobile providers didn't cover his farm. Most tourists didn't mind, but it seemed Clarice had had a pressing need to contact someone. A boyfriend perhaps?
    The thought angered him.
    His jaw tensed, and his upper lip curled instinctively into a snarl.
    He decided to turn around and leave before he was spotted, though just as he got down on all fours again, Clarice turned as well and let out a fearful gasp. He hadn't been able to pick up on her physiology before, she was too far away, but now that she was startled, her bodily responses were loud enough for his sensitive hearing to pick up. Her