by Jenika Snow
BEARing it All
Wylde Brothers, 3
Jenika Snow
BEARING IT ALL (WYLDE BROTHERS, 3)
By Jenika Snow
www.JenikaSnow.com
[email protected]
Copyright © September 2020 by Jenika Snow
First E-book Publication: 2015
Cover Designer: Designs by Dana
Editor: Kayla Robichaux
Proofreader: All Encompassing Books
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: The unauthorized reproduction, transmission, or distribution of any part of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
This literary work is fiction. Any name, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental. Please respect the author and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials that would violate the author’s rights.
Contents
Synopsis
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
About the Author
Bram Wylde was more bear than human, but he embraced it. With the need to fight regularly to let off steam, he allowed his alpha bear to run free when others kept their inner animals under control.
When he saw Kenzie Harlow, a timid deer shifter with wide, innocent eyes, every possessive instinct in his body rose up. He vowed she’d be his by the end of the night.
Kenzie had only known captivity at the hands of Rook, a panther shifter who’d been so obsessed with her he kept her as his property for years.
But when she finally made her escape, she didn’t know where to go. She had no one, nothing. But then she ran into Bram, a bear shifter who was more animalistic than maybe even Rook.
And then Bram declared her his mate, and she knew what that meant. Forever.
When Kenzie found herself at Bram’s isolated cabin, she knew keeping her distance would be nearly impossible. The chemistry between them was too strong, too powerful to control.
But if Rook couldn’t have her, then no one would, and Bram would show the panther just how feral he really was when it came to protecting his mate.
Reader note: This story was previously published as Fighting Dirty for His Girl. It has been reedited and revised.
1
The stench of blood, sweat, and testosterone filled the small, dank basement. If a shifter wanted to do a little bare-knuckle fighting, Slater’s was the place to be. There were no rules or regulations, and the only time a fight ended was when the other male tapped out or lay unconscious on the dirty ground.
It was what Bram fucking loved. It also made the excitement that much more tangible when he had thrown back a few shots of whiskey, so he was partially numb. He might have been too old to be fighting like this, like he was some kind of young bear, but even at thirty-three, he had this wild energy coursing through him, and it seemed the only way to alleviate all of it was to kick another male’s ass.
Tearing off his shirt and tossing it aside, he prepared to fight the lion shifter in front of him. Bosco was a big motherfucker, and probably had a good thirty pounds and two inches on Bram’s two twenty-five, and six-foot-two frame.
None of that mattered much, not when the two of them could shift and their human forms would no longer be in calculation. This was all about letting out the animal that resided in them until blood pooled on the ground and flesh was torn.
Bram honestly didn’t know why he was like this. He had this violence inside him, one that couldn’t be expelled until he threw punches and connected with a living body.
He had always been like this, and although his brothers, Ford and Charlie, never had this intense need for violence and aggression inside them, they never judged, not really, and Bram never felt guilty for it. In fact, he relished it, absorbed the sensations that coursed through him, and let his bear have free rein.
Maybe he should have been more reserved, had better control of his inner beast like his brothers did, but he had never understood why Ford and Charlie felt the need to keep their bear under control. Yes, they were part man, but the animal always reigned supreme over their human side. It was as simple as that.
A human was no match for a predator, even if said man was also housing a fierce creature inside him.
“I’ve been waiting a long time to get my chance with you.” Bosco tore his shirt off, and the lion rippled under the male’s tan flesh. Yeah, Bram had seen the male eyeing him at every fight Bram participated in. Clearly, the lion had some kind of vendetta against Bram, but he didn’t give a fuck, because he was about to show Bosco why he never lost a fight.
Bram’s bear rose to the surface, snarling and snapping for the chance to get at the lion. He already had a few shots of liquor, and although he wasn’t drunk, the alcohol allowed him to feel more in control. Cracking his knuckles and grinning, Bram let his bear free. Bones popped, human skin tore open, and after only seconds, the transformation was complete.
He stood to his full ten-foot height and roared out. Bosco looked unaffected, the cocky bastard, but soon he’d be limp and bloody beneath Bram’s paw.
They met in the middle, tore at each other, bit into each other, and growled in anger. Pain was a hot poker throughout Bram’s body, but he wanted more, got high from the pain, and wasn’t about to be defeated. A wave of adrenalin washed through him, and he used all of that renewed energy to finish this.
He needed another shot. He was ramped up now, and before he went home for the night, he needed to get rid of it.
Bosco let out a howl when Bram sank his teeth into his side. He wasn’t going to kill the asshole, but maiming him was a whole other story. In a matter of seconds, the lion grew limp beneath him, and Bram took a step back. His massive chest rose and fell, and he looked down at the animal by his feet.
His bear was a fierce fucking creature and gave him the power he needed. He couldn’t describe why he was more primal than his brothers, but that was the reality of it. He got high off of it, and it made him stronger, bigger, and gave him the outlet he needed most of the time. Fighting seemed to placate his bear’s need to come out with a vengeance.
A few males off to the side eyed Bram cautiously. They stepped forward and dragged Bosco to the corner where they could check out his wounds. Bram hadn’t caused any serious injuries, but the lion would be hurting for a while; that was for sure.
If Bram hadn’t taken him down, it would be him that was lying limp on the ground. It was either man-up or get his ass kicked, and Bram was not going for the latter. He shifted back into his human form, grabbed his clothes that were in a pile on the floor, and quickly slipped just his jeans on.
His chest was a bloody mess of open wounds and claw marks, and he knew his face wasn’t much better,
but they were his war wounds, and he wore them with honor.
2
Kenzie Harlow stared out the window and watched as the sun set over the horizon. They were relocating once again, and although Rook never told her why they would up and leave, she knew it was because the heat was too hot for him where they currently were.
She glanced over at him, but only with her eyes. She didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention her way, especially when he was in a foul mood, which was more times than not.
“The distributors have pulled out. Now, I have half the fucking city hitting me up asking where their shit is. Where should we meet?” Rook all but barked in the phone, and even though he had never told her what his business was, she wasn’t a fool, especially for as long as she had been under his thumb.
He ended the call and murmured something to Marek, who was driving. She had seen enough cocaine around his home and watched him snort several lines before he grabbed one of the servant girls and disappeared behind a closed door. He was a drug dealer, womanizer, and her captor.
There were too many times to count that he had uprooted them and taken off in the middle of the night, although things must’ve been pretty bad, since he had gotten a call, told her to pack one bag, and all but tossed her in the car. The sun had been bright in the sky too, and Rook always preferred the cloak of darkness.
Yeah, things must have gone downhill very fast. His dark-blond hair was impeccably styled, and his eerie green eyes told of his panther-shifting genes. His attention was trained on the tablet in his lap. His starched dress shirt and pressed slacks made him look like someone important, but what he did was not something that benefited anyone but himself.
He was a big male, but it wasn’t his size that frightened her or others. It was his volatile temper. He could change at the drop of a dime, and when he did, all would scurry off to a dark corner. And when his anger was volcanic, he took it out on her. She even had a few scars to show for his voracious rage.
He disconnected the call without saying goodbye, and she quickly averted her eyes. They passed by beautiful scenery, and she saw a sign that stated they would be entering Sweet Water, Colorado, in the next five miles. For as smart as Rook was, he wasn’t very inconspicuous, not when he was driving around in the sleek black stretch limo.
“Come here, Kenzie.” His voice was pitched low, like smooth milk chocolate, but she heard that tone enough to realize he was furious. And besides, she hated chocolate. His plans weren’t going the way he wanted them to, and because of that, he needed to use her as a distraction.
Kenzie knew well enough that denying him what he wanted only ended up in her crying out in pain. She slipped from her seat and moved over to his side. Rook immediately pulled her into his lap and started stroking her hair. She rarely wore it up, not when Rook preferred it down and liked to pull on it. Not speaking or moving and just letting him pet her as if she was a prized possession, Kenzie felt the familiar tendrils of disgust wash through her anytime Rook touched her.
“You know how much I love you, pet?” Kenzie forced herself not to shiver in revulsion. “You’re the only one I care about.”
It was lies, all lies. He was the only one he cared about.
But she didn’t say anything. Kenzie closed her eyes and took herself away from the here and now.
She could still remember when Rook found her huddled in the corner of an alley, a filthy dumpster as her only companion. She had only been a ten-year-old doe shifter when her parents had been murdered in a random shooting. Before she could be taken into custody by the state, she fled. She had no food, no money, and only the clothes on her back, but even at such a young age, she would rather die in a gutter than let another family raise her as their own.
It probably had been the stupidest mistake of her life, because if she would have gone with the state, she would’ve never met Rook, and therefore wouldn’t have been in this situation.
That had been eleven years ago, and now at twenty-one years old, she knew far more, had seen more horror, and had lived a thousand lives already.
He had only been twenty-five when he found her. He’d coaxed her away from the dumpster, and it had been the first time, due to her normally skittish personality springing from the timid animal inside her, that she hadn’t felt frightened.
How wrong she had been.
And over the years, he’d kept her away from the horror and violence of his world, showed her the parental affection she missed and craved. But once she turned eighteen, everything had changed.
He had changed, as if he’d been waiting for that date to roll around.
It was as if he had been waiting until she became legal—which was ironic, since everything he did was illegal.
He wasn’t the kind and gentle savior she had grown to care about. Over the next three years, he had grown even more possessive and obsessed with her. She knew what she was to him… a piece of property.
She was never allowed out of his sight, and if he was not right beside her, he made sure one of the men working for him was. There had been too many times that she wished things had been different and that she had made different decisions.
“You’re mine, Kenzie.” She knew he wasn’t speaking to her but to himself. She was just the person close enough to him that he could abuse with his body and words.
He lifted his hand and gave three knocks on the partially opened privacy screen that separated them from the front seat. Marek and Tank, cougar shifters, and Rook’s right-hand men, sat in the front seat and were just as sadistic and deranged as their boss. Seconds later, the privacy window went up completely, and Kenzie’s heart pounded wildly in fear.
“You’re afraid of me.” He leaned in impossibly closer, gripped her chin roughly, and turned her head, so she was forced to look at him. Closing his eyes and inhaling deeply, a low purr left him at what he saw and sensed. “I like that you fear me. It makes me feel powerful.”
All she could do was disconnect from the situation.
“Look at me, Kenzie.” He was angry, and it came through in the way he said her name.
She opened her eyes and stared into his cold green eyes.
“Tell me how much you love your Master.”
Never.
It was her one defiance, the one thing he could never take from her. Her virginity would never be Rook’s. He could never take that from her. In her mind, she’d always seen herself giving it to the one person she loved, the one person who innocently, genuinely… truly loved her back.
He growled low. This was the same tired story. He’d wanted her love since the beginning. She’d never give that to him. Never.
He slipped his hand under her shirt to rest the pads of his fingers over the raised scar from the one and only time she tried to escape.
“You remember when you got this, pet?” He pressed his fingers into the inch-long scar that ran right beside her belly button, and even though it no longer hurt, she tensed.
“Yes,” she hissed.
He’d since let go of her chin, but she was numb to his touch, numb to the acidic feel of his hands on her, but even that numbness couldn’t dispel the overall sickness that always filled her when he was near.
“That is my gift to you, one in which you can always look at and know you are mine.” He leaned in an inch closer. “And a reminder that if you try to leave me again, the consequences will be given in the form of me beating you into compliance and submission.” Rook tightened his hand on her waist, and Kenzie bit her bottom lip to hold in her cry.
Yeah, he’d taken a blade to her belly when she tried to escape two years ago. That had been the only time she tried to leave him. But she knew death was probably a far better outcome for her.
The next twenty minutes, he left her alone, periodically barking orders into his phone. His agitation was clear, and that worried her. When he was upset, she was that outlet he used.
The car slowed before coming to a stop. “I’ve got some business to handle inside,
and I need Marek and Tank with me in case shit happens. You can either be handcuffed in the limo and wait for me, or I’ll allow you inside with Tank and Marek watching you.”
It may not have seemed like anything, but having more than one option, and one that didn’t consist of being restrained and left to wait for him to return, was a gift of sorts.
“I’ll go inside.” No way would she stay in the car, especially when her wrists were still sore from the last time he bound her and made her wait hours upon hours for him to return and release her.
He nodded once, but there was no emotion on his face. “They’ll watch you until I’m finished.” He pegged her with a hard stare. “You try anything, and you’ll regret it, Kenzie.” He got out of the limo and gestured for her to follow him but kept her by his side as they entered the disgusting bar. Marek and Tank flanked them, and she knew their focus was ever-aware of their surroundings.
As soon as they entered, a man stopped in front of Rook, and the two of them leaned in close and started talking too softly for her to hear. Rook turned around and said, “I have to go with him in the back. You’ll stay with them.” He gestured to his henchmen. “Understand?”
Rook was in his businessman mood, one that was all professional demands and nothing like how he really was.
Kenzie watched as he followed the greasy-looking human toward the back of the bar and behind a door. Marek snapped his fingers and gestured for her to have a seat at a table beside her.