Mine to Bear (Romance on the Go Book 0)

by Khloe Wren

  EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2018 Khloe Wren

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-837-2

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Melissa Hosack

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  Miranda, keep smiling, my friend.

  MINE TO BEAR

  Romance on the Go ®

  Khloe Wren

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter One

  Neo

  “Brother, this is getting ridiculous. Just claim her already.”

  I looked over at Ranger, my eldest brother and the alpha of our clan of black bear shifters, before I lifted my glass to swallow the last of my whiskey, enjoying the burn. “It ain’t that simple and you know it. She’s been hurt, badly. Me taking a bite out of her is going to scare the shit out of her.” And possibly send her running. Again.

  “Well, the current routine of her coming to you for a fuck when she can’t stand the mating burn any longer, then pushing you away again after, ain’t working either. It’s killing you, and I’m not going to stand by and watch you fade away.”

  Noticing my raised my hand, the bar tender came over and replaced my drink. Beauty of living in a small town where everyone knew everyone, Dirk knew what I wanted and didn’t ask questions about running a tab for me.

  I took a mouthful of my fresh drink before responding to Ranger. I knew he was right. Being so close yet not bonded to my mate would slowly drive me insane. Eventually, I’d need to be put out of everyone’s misery before I turned into a completely feral animal. “And what do you suggest I do? Shift and drag her off into the mountains? Not exactly realistic when she doesn’t even know what I am.”

  “Hey, don’t knock it till you try it. Chelle loves it when I go cave-bear on her.”

  That had me shaking my head. Ranger and Chelle had been mated for five years now, and they still went at it like teenagers whenever they could. Which considering they had two cubs in the house, meant they sometimes had to get creative. I had three brothers and all four of us lived close to each other on the edge of the forest. I think we’d all caught sight of Ranger striding off into the trees with a giggling Chelle over his shoulder or in his arms on more than one occasion.

  “Still, I don’t think it’s a great way to introduce her to my other side.”

  Before he could respond, I felt her. A rush of cold night air brought her scent to my nose, and I was instantly hard and wanting. The mating burn raced through my veins now that she was close.

  Ranger groaned. “Guess I know how your night’s gonna end. I’ll see you in the morning. Just remember what I said. Slow and steady ain’t gonna win you this race, brother.”

  I knew he was right, I knew this cycle Jolie and I were in wasn’t healthy for either of us. But what else could I do? She was my mate. I couldn’t deny her a damn thing. It was just a pity she had no trouble denying me. When she wasn’t under the influence of the mating burn, she barely allowed me to speak to her. Let alone sit down with me long enough for me to explain what I was and who she was to me. That I could keep her safe from whatever had her watching over her shoulder all the time. Maybe shifting in front of her was the only way I was going to get through her walls. It was a risky move that could backfire in a big way. I needed to think on it some more before I went with that idea.

  Her scent grew stronger and I slammed the rest of my whiskey down my throat before I turned around to look for her. Fuck she was beautiful. Tall and lean, she had the most mouth-watering curves. They were subtle and under the loose clothing she so often wore I could barely make them out, but get her naked and I just about drooled over the gentle curve of her hips and her small firm breasts. She was all woman and fucking perfect. Well, she would be if she’d just stop running scared. If she’d just confide in me what had her so afraid, I’d fucking handle it for her.

  She’d changed out of her work uniform and was in a pair of fitted jeans and an oversized knit jumper. Her gaze was locked onto me as she strode directly toward me. It was always this way. Outside of work, she’d ignore my every advance, until her need grew too much. She was still only human so didn’t understand that it was because we were mates that she needed my touch to feel whole. In the three months since she’d moved to Serenity, Colorado, I’d tried a few times to talk to her about my other side, to ease her into things but outside of sex, she didn’t want to know me at all. The only reason she’d give me was that she’d learned her lesson well and she didn’t want or need a man in her life. Whatever the hell that meant. I guessed it was an ex-boyfriend that had hurt her, but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure on it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t skilled at investigating people’s pasts either. Otherwise I’d have checked into her history myself.

  And her spiel about not needing me was nothing but bullshit. She did need me. And I could plainly see she wanted me. Thankfully, she’d accepted the job at our adventure tour company, so I at least got to see her every day, be near her and breathe in her scent. I could make sure nothing would be able to hurt her at least for those daylight hours that I was close to her. It was enough to keep my bear level, but only just.

  As she got closer, her steps slowed and she started to chew on her lower lip. It was always this dance. The mating burn pulled her to me, but she didn’t want to give in to it, nor did she understand it. When she got within reach, I spread my legs open and leaned forward to grab her and pull her in against me. She came willingly, her soft hands sliding up my chest and over my shoulders until they were wrapped around my neck.

  “Hey, Jolie, you need something, baby?”

  She shivered beneath my hands that I now had resting on her hips. Her ice blue gaze was glued to my mouth as she licked her lips and nodded. A low growl rumbled up my throat as my bear put his opinion in on what we should be doing with our mate. Lifting a hand, I ran my fingers through her long ash-blonde hair.

  “So fucking pretty. You gonna let me kiss you tonight?”

  We both knew how the night was going end, but how we got there wasn’t such a sure thing. Some nights she’d battle me every step of the way. Not that I’d ever force anything on her, she was just stubborn enough that she pushed back against her own needs as much as she did me. Then, other nights she’d come to me sweetly and it was those nights that gave me hope she’d accept my claim on her one day.

  “I’m hungry, Neo. It won’t go away.”

  I stroked my fingers down her cheek and along her jaw, loving how she leaned into my touch.

  “I know, baby. I know it hurts. You need to come to me more often, let me help you. Say you’ll be mine, and you’ll never again be left wanting, I promise.”

  Her eyes filled with moisture for a moment before she blinked it away. “I can’t. I can’t be who you need.”

  “You are exactly who I need, Jolie. Just you. All you need to do is let me in, tell me what I need to do so you’ll stop pushing me away and I’ll do it in a heartbeat.”

  Shaking her head, she tried to back away from me and panic took hold. My bear wasn’t too happy with me either. He slammed against the inside of my head, cursing me for pushing her and risking our chance to have her.

  “Shit. I’m sorry, ba
be. I promise I won’t push you again. Come back here, let me help you.”

  She was still holding herself rigid, but she did allow me to hold her in close against me again.

  I buried my face in against her neck, inhaling her sweet scent, calming my bear as it filled my senses. Her jumper was loose enough it nearly hung off her shoulder. Making the most of the flesh it exposed, I pressed kisses along her shoulder and up her neck.

  With a quiet moan, she tilted her head, giving me more room. She didn’t know what it did to me every time she did this, exposed her throat to me like that. My bear shoved at me again to bite down, to claim her as ours. But I shoved him back. Telling him we would soon, but not yet. And not in a public bar. We needed to be patient to win our mate.

  I ran my tongue over the scar that ran along her collarbone before moving to take her lips with mine. Wrapping my arms around her, I held her close as I took her mouth, devouring her until her body softened and with a moan, she melted against me. Running a palm up her spine, I buried my hand in her hair, cupping the back of her head to help me control the kiss.

  fingers dug into my shoulders and when I broke the kiss, she whimpered as her lips chased mine for more.

  “Time to go, Jolie. I need more of you than just your mouth. You gonna let me take you home?”

  This was the other thing she always refused me. She would never come back to my place, or let me inside hers. It drove me fucking nuts. But no matter how many times she refused, I always asked. Every time she came to me, I tried to get her to let me in just a little bit more than the last time.

  Her gaze lost the haze of lust and grew weary. Before she could shut me down, I rubbed my nose against hers.

  “C’mon, Jolie. You’ve been coming to me like this for two months now. And you knew me a month before that. You know I won’t do a damn thing to hurt you. Let me take you home. I promise I’ll leave the moment you tell me to. Please, baby, give me this?”

  Fuck, I was begging just to be let inside her house. I felt like a fucking pet looking for some affection, not a strong alpha male black bear shifter who should be able to just take what I wanted. Maybe if I cared for her less, I could do just that, but I refused to hurt her any more than she clearly already had been. I was hoping if I could get inside her house, I could find out more about her past, get some idea on how to knock down the wall she kept between us.

  ****

  Jolie

  Just like every time I got near this man, my mind went spinning, turning my thoughts to mush. When I finally got free of Trent and my foster father, I swore I’d never let another man anywhere near me. Battery operated boyfriends were going to be it for my future. And that had held true for the first fourteen months I’d been free. It hadn’t been hard really. I kept moving, not staying anywhere longer than a month so my foster father wouldn’t be able to find me. But for some reason three months after first moving to Serenity, Colorado, I was still here.

  Who was I kidding? I knew precisely why I was still here and it had everything to do with the man who currently held me tightly against him. It made no sense.

  I’d tried to leave town twice in the past two months but I just couldn’t make myself go farther than about twenty miles from town before I found myself turning around and coming back. It was crazy. I knew better than to stay in one place for so long. While I doubted Trent would come looking, in fact I suspected he was glad to be rid of me, my foster father was a different story. He’d want his property back where he could continue making money off my back. Every day I expected my foster father to roll into town. I was constantly on the lookout for him. As each week passed I grew more tense, but still I couldn’t leave. It was infuriating. This need I had for Neo was also infuriating. It was so strong, I couldn’t help but be suspicious of it. But no matter what I told myself, how hard I tried to resist, I inevitably ended up going back to him.

  Every time I gave in and went looking for Neo, he was waiting and ready for me. He never turned me away and always, always took good care of me. So why shouldn’t I bring him home with me this time? Normally, I insisted we get a room here at the inn. Then I was out the door the moment we finished. But maybe it wouldn’t hurt to spend more time with him tonight. Maybe it would ease the ache I had for longer this time, and it would be easier to stay away from him.

  “Okay. Just this once. And you go after without any argument.”

  “The moment you tell me to go, I will.”

  I stared into his soulful dark brown eyes for a few minutes, trying to gauge the truth behind his words. In the three months since coming to Serenity, I’d never seen Neo once lift a hand in anger to anyone. And since I worked in the main office of the adventure tour business he ran with his three brothers, I saw him a lot. Even when the brothers started in on each other, I could tell there was no malice to anything they did to each other.

  In short, he was nothing like Trent. Nothing like my foster father. And I really was sick of being so alone all the time. I had a small timber house on the edge of town. It was nice and quiet and out of the way. I mostly kept to myself and the townsfolk let me. It was best that way. Less people to notice when I left. Less people for me to miss when I went.

  “Um, okay. You’ll follow me, then?”

  He stroked his callused fingers down my cheek again before he responded.

  “Sure, baby. Just let me fix up my tab, then we can get moving. You’re not the only one that’s hungry tonight.”

  With that, he slipped off the stool and turned back toward the bar. Panic began creeping in as I stood staring at his back while he paid his bill. What had I just agreed to in my moment of weakness? I knew he wanted more from me, but I couldn’t afford to give in to my selfish desires for him. And not only because of who was coming for me. I was sterile. And a man like Neo would want a family. He deserved to be surrounded by a wife and kids, and I couldn’t give him that.

  Before I could come up with a way to back out of things, he was leading me out of the bar and helping me into my car. Before he closed my door, he leaned in and gave me another kiss. Every time he took my mouth with his, I lost a little more of my heart to him. I was trying to resist him, really, I was, but just like I couldn’t seem to leave this damn town, I couldn’t resist him for long either.

  “You right to drive? I can drive us then walk back here to get my bike after, if you need me to.”

  I shook my head, clearing the fog from my brain.

  “Nah, I’m good to drive. You’ll follow me, yeah?”

  I was fairly certain he knew where I lived. Especially considering I had to put it on the paperwork when I started working at his company. But I kind of liked the idea of him needing to follow me to find it.

  “Sure, babe. See you soon.”

  By the time I was buckled in and had the engine idling, his Harley was rumbling next to my car. A small sigh escaped my lips at how fine he looked on that big machine of his before I focused back on the road and getting home. The sooner I got us back to my place, the sooner he could put out this fire that was raging inside me.

  Serenity wasn’t a big town so it, thankfully, only took a few minutes before I was pulling up in front of my little house. After turning off my engine, I went to open my door and noticed my hand was trembling. Why the hell was I nervous? We’d had sex at least a half a dozen times before. Nothing new was going to happen tonight. Well, except for the fact you invited him over to your house this time. I shut down that thought quickly and jumped out of the car before Neo could make it over to my door to help me out. Because he would. I knew he would. He was big and strong and looked lethal as hell, but he’d always been a gentleman with me. In the two months we’d been hooking up, he’d never once shown any aggression. No matter how many times I pushed him away or refused his advances, he never got mad. Surely that counted as a sign he wasn’t a violent man like my ex and foster father were?

  “Need help with that?”

  I heard the humor in his voice and felt my cheeks hea
t as I realized I’d stalled out at my front door.

  “It’s been a long time since I brought a man home.”

  Try never. But I wasn’t admitting that out loud. His strong arms slipped around my waist, pulling me back against his solid body before he pressed a kiss to the top of my head.

  “Nothing will happen that you don’t want to, Jolie. I promise to take care of you. I’ll always take care of you.”

  Ignoring the way my heart sped up at his words, I leaned forward—forcing him to loosen his hold—to slide the key into the lock and let us in. I was being stupid. It was just sex, the same as we always did. It was just this time it wasn’t costing him the price of a hotel room. As it occurred to me that it was always him that picked up the cost of the room, it dawned on me exactly how patient he had been with me. Hell, Trent wouldn’t have ever agreed to do what I’d forced Neo to do so many times over these past months, not even once. No way. Yet Neo never complained. I knew he wasn’t happy with how things were, that he wanted more, but he never got angry or gave up on me.

  While I was lost in my head, Neo closed and flipped the lock on the door.

  “C’mon, babe. I need to get you out of that head of yours before I lose you completely.”

  I blinked up at him, trying to fight my way through the tangle of thoughts swirling in my head when with a growl he prowled toward me. Instinctively, I retreated, stepping back until I hit the wall.

  His eyes shone, reflecting the moonlight that streamed in through the open curtains as he moved up until our bodies were pressed together. Not looking away from my eyes, he rested one arm on the wall above my head while he used his other hand to tilt up my chin. Then he stole my breath, along with every thought in my head, when he lowered his mouth and claimed my lips with his.