Forbidden Love: A BBW, BWWM Paranormal Romance by Mary T Williams

fell to all fours and shuffled back a few steps,
unable to remove his eyes from this spectacle.
    Around them, bears and wolves shifted back into their
human forms, the situation too much for them to understand. A
werebear had thrown herself over an injured werewolf in order to
protect him from her own kind. The world just might be ending.
    John stood and stared at his son on the ground, Alice’s
body covering his. He looked at Shara, who returned his gaze with
what looked like a smirk on her face.
    Cammie had also shifted and was staring at her daughter
protecting the wolf. Secretly, she cheered. The end of this
ridiculous feud may be upon them. She looked at Shara, and they
shared a moment of understanding and hope. Neither of the women liked
this continuing hatred, and both were happy to see a possible end to
it.
    Riley finally shifted when he realized everyone else
had. His breathing was labored, both from the fight and from the
scene that lay before him. His voice was quiet, almost awed. “What
the hell are you doing, Alice?”
    “ Riley, I’m in love with him. I couldn’t
let you kill him,” she explained quietly, firmly. “I know
there’s some kind of feud between the clan and the pack, but I
don’t care.”
    Alex had shifted beneath her, and she turned to touch
his wounded side, which looked much deeper and more deadly on his
human form. She put her hand to his face, pale with pain. He looked
up at her and smiled. Then he shifted his attention to the rest of
the group.
    “ I love her too. I know it’s fast and seems
insane, but I do.”
    John was furious. “No, Alex! No. You do not love
this woman. You’ve known her one day.”
    “ That’s all it took, Dad,” Alex
replied. “I want to be with her.”
    Riley glared at him. “You will not be with her.
She is a werebear. We marry our own kind, dammit!”
    “ Do not answer for me, Riley! I want to be with
him too,” Alice yelled. “You may be the future leader of
our clan, but this clan has never ruled over its bears like a
dictatorship.”
    “ New leader, new rules,” Riley growled at
her.
    “ Young man, you are not the leader of this clan
yet,” Cammie called, walking to her son. “And if your
leadership is to become a dictatorship, I will not step down.”
    Riley looked down. They’d both known it was an
idle threat; his leadership would match his father’s and
mother’s. “Mother, she cannot do this! She cannot be with
a werewolf no matter how much she loves him.”
    John spoke up. “I agree with the werebear,
shockingly.” He looked at Alex and Alice, who still sat on the
ground together. “Werewolves marry other werewolves, and I
assume werebears marry werebears.”
    Riley nodded his head, but Shara stepped up to speak.
“There is no law within the pack that says a werewolf must
marry a werewolf.” She turned to Cammie and asked, “Is
there such a law in the clan?”
    “ No, we have no such law. It’s just always
been that way,” Cammie replied.
    “ Same here. It’s called tradition. And this
pack is about tradition,” John called, looking at the crowd
around them. He spoke to the wolves first. “Werewolves, we have
never married outside the werewolf species. We don’t know what
kind of children these two might have. Or if they can even have
children.”
    “ We haven’t said anything about children,”
Alice yelled. “That’s a discussion best left for another
time. We want to be together, to see what might happen. Why is that
so wrong?”
    “ Because the werewolves are our natural enemy,
Alice. You know that, have known that your whole life. Quit acting
like you don’t,” Riley told her. When he saw Alice
struggling to rise on her injured leg, his chivalry overcame his
anger and he offered her his arm. She immediately turned to help
Alex. Riley’s chivalry didn’t reach that far, so Shara
stepped forward and helped Alice haul Alex to his feet.
    “ Riley, do not speak to me like I’m stupid.
I know about the feud,