CH54
Johanna was still in the shower and Oscar had just finished talking to Rick and sent him on his way. Oscar finally got a wild hare that he blamed on being out there. "I know I've ignored you for a very, very long time and I'm not sorry. I love my job and I found Eileen there and had my son there. If I can convince Jo, this may become a daily routine," he said to himself as he stripped off his clothes, left them on a chair, then walked outside. The next thing he knew he was running out in the field and beyond. At first it was little more than muscle memory until eventually he was running flat out, feeling his lungs fill and expand before letting the air out as he snorted a little. Coming across a downed tree he jumped it with ease. And he felt…free. It was a feeling and a life he had suppressed for countless years. Manhattan was no place for this kind of running.
Johanna was out of the shower and getting dressed. She left her bedroom in search of Oscar. She was really hoping he would give her just a little push. She was ready and more than willing to take the next step. He was a good man and she was falling for him - hard. However she couldn't find him. She only found a pile of his clothing including his underwear folded up on a chair near the back door. She left the clothes and walked outside. What was he doing out there naked? If he actually was out there.
She stepped up onto a porch chair to gain some height so she could see farther. What she saw was something she hadn't seen in this area before. "Where in the world did he come from?" Johanna watched as he ran and ran. There was even an occasional hop. It was the best she could describe it. It was part jump and part run while kicking out his rear legs. Then she was shocked when he trotted from far out into the field and headed straight for her house. Even worse he was headed right for her back door!
She kept standing there as she watched him slow and finally stop as they both looked right at each other. He was a magnificent beast. Johanna had never thought of herself as a person who knew much about what she was looking at. Still he was regal looking. He was mostly gray with black legs, the color beginning at his hooves that slowly faded to gray the closer they got to his body. His muzzle was equally black that paled to gray as it reached his eyes which were black. His mane was jet black starting between the ears that partly fell forward and then down his neck. It was long and thick.
And then there was his tail. It was mostly black with hints of gray like highlights that a woman would get in her hair. He was gorgeous as he just stood there and stared at her. "You're a mighty handsome boy." Johanna reached out a hand and stroked his muzzle. "Who do you belong to?" she wondered out loud not really expecting an answer. She was taken aback and shocked when her beautiful horse shoved his nose in her chest almost pushing her off her chair. "Easy boy!" she scolded and stroked her hand down one side of his head.
"It's been a really long time since I've gone riding," Johanna commented mostly to herself. 'If you can call riding a flying dragon riding. My husband was black. You kind of remind me of him,' she thought as she kept stoking his head. She watched as he turned so that his left side was facing her. "Oh, no. No, I couldn't. You belong to someone and I don't have a saddle. Go on, go home to your owner." She gave him a little push, however the horse barely moved. Unless she called him knocking his side into her forcing her to grab hold of his mane to remain standing barely moving.
"This is a really bad idea," she told herself but jumped up, throwing her right leg over his back and pulling on his lovely black mane to right herself so that she was sitting properly. As she held onto his mane the horse suddenly began walking back out into the large field behind their house. Soon the horse was trotting and Johanna was doing what she could to stay on his back. It was when the horse started running that she leaned forward and held that much tighter onto his beautiful black mane. However she was grinning as the horse under her kept running. It was as close as she'd come to flying since she'd been sky bound on Jim's dragon's back!
"NO, NO, NO! No jumpinnngggg!" she yelled as the horse jumped over a small tree lying on the ground. Grateful that she hadn't fallen off his back, she'd found it thrilling. The horse slowed to a walk and stopped. Johanna was sitting there with a wide smile on her face. "That was exciting but don't even think of doing that again," she informed him tersely only to have him trot away then turn around and head right back for the same fallen tree. "No, no, no ,noooooo!" The horse and she jumped the little tree again.
"You don't listen very well do you?" she scolded and saw him nodding his head, snorting through his nose. "And you talk back!" she said in wonderment and was slightly amused. "Okay boy, let's go home before you decide to jump something bigger and I fall off and break something." Johanna tried to turn his head back towards the house only to have him take off trotting farther out into the field. "You're going the wrong way," she chided him.
Her attempts to get him to turn prove fruitless. "Just where do you think you're going?" she demanded then spotted an abandoned barn-like structure that was partially collapsed that he was headed for. Once they were closer to it she could see the paint had long since flaked away, the exposed wood a silvery gray. He stopped moving and Johanna realized he was standing next to something that she could step onto to get off of him if she chose. So long as she kept him from running away she could use it to get back on him.
As she slid down off his left side, the crate she stepped on gave way causing her to scream in surprise as she fell to the ground. She landed on her butt and started laughing at herself, right up to the point where her handsome gray and black horse suddenly turned into a completely naked Oscar who was quickly down on his knees next to her. "Jo! Are you hurt? I didn't know it would collapse on you." He lifted her up a little so he could look at her. "Oscar?" Johanna was shocked, though because of her daughter and her dead husband, even Rick a little for that matter, she wasn't quite that shocked.
"Give me a chance to explain Johanna, please. I swear I'm not some strange…" She interrupted him. "You're a shifter," she said calmly. Now it was Oscar's turn to be shocked. Only in his case he was seriously astonished since very few humans knew about shifters. "You know about...people like me?" He could scarcely believe it. He was sure changing form in front of her would scare her off permanently, but he couldn't leave her lying on the ground possibly hurt. She nodded. "My husband was a shifter," Johanna clarified, not ready to tell him that her daughter, Rick, and likely Alexis were also shifters. "Your husband." Oscar thought it over. He knew that meant Kate probably was as well since shifter genes tended to be dominant. His nose had already told him that Johanna was human now that he was starting to slowly release the horse that was inside him.
"I suppose I need to explain," he began only to see Johanna shake her head. "It can wait Oscar." She didn't need to understand. What she did need was up off her sore ass. "Help me up, please?" She held out her hands and Oscar pulled her up. Johanna found that not only was she standing but she was also now in his arms. "Uhm, Oscar, you're na…" She was forced to stop talking when he kissed her. They had been kissing a lot lately and the more it happened, the more she liked it. She immediately kissed him back and wrapped her arms around him with her hands feeling the skin of his naked back.
She broke from the kiss. "Oscar?" She was silenced when he kissed her again. She kissed him back and actually held him close, wishing for her clothes to be gone. She had always thought that if they did make love to each other it would be in her bedroom on a bed, but he was naked in her arms and there wasn't a person for miles.
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Serena and Joanne along with a number of the town's citizens were back at the park. Rick and Kate joined them after dropping Alexis off at the Kodiak community child care center for the duration of today's final bout. "Brian Morris have you had time to recover from your injuries?" she asked him and he signaled that he was fine. "Who has inspected his injuries from yesterday and can confirm that he has completely healed?" Serena didn't want one to get an advantage over an injured opponent.
After being assured that Brian was fine by the clan's healer, she continued, "Very well. Andrea Fisher and Brian Morris, do each of you remember the rules of this combat?" Each nodded in turn. "Good, step back to your starting positions and strip," she commanded and waited. "Begin!" Serena yelled and they both shifted into their bears. It was clear that Brian was a good deal larger than Andrea was. They each approached much like the last fight and Kate closed her eyes. This was going to be quick and a slaughter and she didn't want to watch someone else die.
Suddenly there was a growl of pain and then nothing. "WOW! Did you see that?" Kate realized that it was Rick who was astounded. She opened her eyes and looked. What she saw was the big bear was on all fours with blood running down his rear leg while the smaller bear was quickly running out into the park. "Did you see that? That was fast! …Kate?" Rick down look at her. "Kate?" he questioned since he knew she had to have seen it. She stared at the ground. "I had my eyes closed," she whispered not knowing what she missed. "You missed it? I can't believe you missed it." He was actually amazed at what the smaller bear had done. It was brilliant strategy. "She was about to be slaughtered," Kate half defended herself, convinced that if the fight went like it did last time, Andrea, the little bear, was going to get her back crushed at the very least.
Serena, Joanne, and the clan members present followed as the big, injured bear limped his way out into the park to chase her down. "If we want to see this, we need to get moving," Rick told her as he took her hand and started running at pace Kate could keep up to him with. However he wasn't following the group and was actually running on a tangent down one side of the park. It allowed them to watch Andrea arranging something. "What's she doing?" Kate panted. Even though Kate was a shifter too, keeping up with Rick's longer stride had winded her. They were still a good distance away. He shook his head since he didn't have a clue. They watched as Brian, the larger of the two bears, approached at a run with just a hint of a limp. He charged what he took to be a defensive location that the smaller bear would be hiding behind thinking it would offset his larger size and power.
The second he hit it Andrea came charging out of her hiding place and raked her claws across his already hurt leg and quickly bit his other rear leg and ran off again. But she didn't get away scott free as Brian got in a slash causing some damage. "She's quite clever," Kate commented as she watched Brian run after her with a now more visible limp. "She's smaller and weaker but faster and fighting smarter." Kate was grinning now. She actually felt pleased about Andrea's cunning and found herself rooting for her.
This fight, unlike the last one, lasted for hours as Andrea kept coming up with distractions, some of which worked better than others, and made guerrilla strikes. She didn't engage in a head-on, all-out fight until it was almost dark. By then Brian had gotten smarter about how Andrea was fighting and decided to attack her next attempt from a different angle. He came up over a little hill with the sun to his back and attacked. His only problem was she wasn't where he expected her to be. While he was engaged with her empty fortification Andrea slowly came over the same hill he had just come over. Only now the sun was even lower and Brian never saw her coming. Even worse for him, his nose was filled with the scent of the animal that Andrea had killed and left behind so he didn't smell her either.
Her first strike all but removed the more heavily damaged leg as she ran off and waited while Brian tried to do what he could with his heavily damaged leg. He was sure to lose his damaged leg if the fighting didn't stop long enough for his healing ability to have any chance. What he didn't do was get rid of the dead animal that he was still sitting next to. As a result, in the darkness with a bear's poor eyesight, he didn't smell Andrea working her way in slowly and quietly toward him. While she couldn't see or smell him either, she did know he hadn't left the area as yet.
Brian finally got the head-on, all-out fight he had been expecting to take place since the fight had started. His major problem was though he was already down one leg. As he struggled to move against her, Andrea literally bit through his other leg leaving him lying there bleeding to death. She retreated and watched him bleed.
Brian had lost and he knew it. His two rear legs were effectively gone and he wasn't capable of re-growing them. No bear, not even Rick, was able to do so albeit with a mate's help. Brian admitted defeat. He didn't want to live in his condition so he shifted back into a human and died just minutes later.
The Kodiak Bear clan had its new unofficial alpha.
Rick and Kate went to the truck and drove over to pick up Alexis at the Kodiak community child care center. They were worn out from the excitement of the afternoon and were looking forward to a night in their own bed. Kate had to be at work by noon especially since she was only working half a day in order to be back at the Kodiak compound by early morning with Rick and Alexis. It was important for Rick to be there to give his tacit approval of the new alpha because he was Hunt's son. He had also decided that since the fighting was over it would be safe for Alexis to attend. In addition Kate had to be at the announcement of the victor so she could turn over the contents of the mansion's floor safe to the new alpha.
It wasn't until very early the next morning that Serena and the others caught up to her and found Brian Morris dead.
"There was no time limit placed on the battle and Andrea has used that to her benefit. Some of you may not see her fighting style as being strictly that of a Kodiak Bear however her victory has earned her the title of alpha," Serena proclaimed.
Andrea's family surrounded her congratulating her on her victory. She soon learned just what she had won as Kate handed over everything she had gotten out of Hunt's floor safe: Five ledgers that told her the amount of money the community was generating; The cash that Kate had found in his safe as well as the off shore account that held millions; The final part that made everyone happy came from the black portfolio that Kate had taken out of the bottom of Hunt's safe. It held the deeds for each and every piece of land that Hunt had acquired.
Becoming alpha allowed Andrea and her family to move into the log home that used to be occupied by Hunt and Martha alone. It had taken weeks to repair the damage Kate had done to the house. Although she could lead alone, Andrea wasted no time in setting up a small council that would handle the money that the community made and would spend it where it was needed.
The community soon had semi-trailers full of solar power panels as well as the first of several even longer trucks towing parts for wind mills to generate power. Adding the windmills would continue for years making them even more self-sufficient and earning more money as they sold excess power back to the regional electric company. There would be no more brown outs across the community. It allowed Andrea to tear down old housing and replace it with still more housing groups just like the one Serena, Joanne, Rick, and Kate had stayed in for that one night after the initial bout, since Kate had to go back to work by 6am the following morning.
The members of the community also found that they all got raises of a size that almost doubled what they had been making and still the community grew. Andrea handed the deeds over to the owners of the buildings that were on that land. The owners then owned all of their business and no longer had to hand over all of the proceeds to the alpha. By the time Andrea lost her second challenge thirty five years later, the community was twice the size that it used to be when she became alpha. In that time the community actually had more children in it than adults. The population boom during her time as alpha had been huge, as had the improvements to the community as a whole.
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The surrounding area was wild grass, weeds, and wild flowers. Johanna was resting on top of a still naked Oscar who was lying on his back. She hummed and stroked her hand over his chest. "It's been a long time," she commented and felt him chuckle. "I hate to break it to you, but it's been even longer for me," he said. She raised up so she could look at him. "Surely not!" she exclaimed in disbelief. He was handsome, in very good shape, and he was 'equipped' in a way that would make any woman very happy.
"I moved away from home and our small horse clan and decided to make my fortune in New York City. Eventually I succeeded but it forced me to suppress the horse inside me for years. Then I met Eileen and fell in love and we had Michael. He really is an amazing young lad. A while later she got sick and lingered for a year. Instead of leaving New York after her death I dived even deeper into my work. I think Rick helped me more than he knows during the time she was in the hospital."
"He contacted me about you wanting to open a restaurant. When I came out here it was like a breath of fresh air. The horse inside me relished the idea of moving here. I could quit my job, sell out to my partners, sell my apartment, and essentially retire. That was when I met you. Suddenly the two of us wanted the same thing and I was only too willing to keep coming back out," he told her and it earned him a quick kiss as she snuggled back down on top of him.
"I never did thank you for what you did that night and the following day after I lost Chili and Pepper. Losing them at the same time broke my heart. Without warning there was no one to come back home to." Jo blinked back the tears that had started and kissed his chest. She remembered those days, too. Watching him hurt was so very painful. She thought it was during that time that she started to fall for him.
She was afraid of the answer she was going to receive but she needed to ask. "When are you going home?" she inquired softly. Her business was open and they were still doing pretty good. The first bus was expected to show up tomorrow and they needed to be ready. "When you want me to," he answered her question, which had Johanna back up looking at him, shocked and happy at the same time. "Oscar y...you li...live ...there, your w...work ...is there," she stammered. His whole life was in New York.
"My horse is alive again here and I'm finding that I love what I've missed out on for years. It's even had me thinking about opening a horse rescue facility. Take in horses who are possibly on their last legs or have been mistreated and give them a real home. Not many, maybe just 5 or 6. I would need a place that was big enough. Build a stable to house them in, construct a fenced area for them to run around in or let them out and run free. I would also need a place to hold their feed and other things. Look up a large animal veterinarian to tend to them." Oscar had dreams and ideas now that he had been here for a while.
"You wouldn't happen to know of a place?" He was smiling and suddenly Johanna's broken heart was learning how to soar again. She rested her head back down on his chest and stroked his bare chest once again. Before she could stop herself she said, "I have 40 acres." And her heart seized up knowing what she had just offered and was scared as to what he would say.
"And an entire second floor that could use an extensive remodel. We could live upstairs and convert the downstairs into a one man office for an architectural firm that specializes in kitchens of all sizes," he told her. Johanna blinked back yet more tears. He was willing to stay for her!
She reached down and took hold of his flaccid penis, stroking it and starting round two of them making love to each other.
