Forbidden Mate: A Shifting Destinies Bear Shifter Romance (Shifters of Bear's Den Book 1)

by Cecilia Lane

  They moved at the same time, but she was quicker.

  She wrapped her hands around a coiled length of chain and hoped she’d been right that it was made of iron. She whipped an end across Jamin’s face. A savage cut opened across his cheek and forced him back a step.

  She whipped the chain again and again, forcing him away from her and the door. But he had tricks up his sleeve and pressed a hand to the door. The handle glowed a hideous orange before she could touch it, drooping toward the floor in a melted mess.

  Panic threatened to crush her crazed determination, but her eyes landed on metal ladder rungs. A hatch! Callum and Judah had mentioned a hatch to the top of the dam.

  With a yell, Leah flung the length of chain at Jamin and hoped it’d pin him long enough to get to the top.

  She flew up the ladder, hands reaching higher even before she placed her feet. Faster, she urged her muscles. Faster to escape. Faster to live.

  Blood pounded in her ears and drowned out all other noise. Good thing, too. She didn’t want to hear the curses and promises Jamin threw at her.

  She’d neared the top when Jamin slithered his way out from the magic of iron. She closed her hands around the wheel used to unseal the hatch when the ring of boots striking metal rungs filtered through her heart’s thundering beats.

  “You’ll pay,” Jamin hissed.

  She dared to glance below her. Red, angry welts lined Jamin’s face and arms. He snarled when he met her eyes.

  Heat burned through the soles of her shoes and warmed her hand. She struggled to turn the wheel on the hatch. The metal started to glow, but she grit her teeth against the pain. Burned palms were nothing compared to the death that awaited her below.

  “Give up, Leah! Stop this madness and I won’t make you suffer. Much.”

  The hatch loosened, and she pushed against it with all her strength. A scream tore out of her throat when strong hands wrapped around her arms and dragged her up and out.

  “It’s okay. I got you,” Callum soothed in her ear. He held her tight and pulled her away from the hatch with one steady step at a time.

  Quiet spread over her, seeming louder than the stifling innards of the dam and Jamin’s promises of pain. The silence was barely disturbed by the beating sounds of steps on concrete running toward them from either direction. Each footfall matched the thump in her chest and brought danger closer to the surface.

  Leah beat against Callum’s chest, struggling out of his arms. “Close it! Close it!”

  Too late.

  Jamin hitched his fingers around the edge of the hatch, then sprang upward and landed in a crouch.

  A growl ripped out of Callum’s throat and he pushed Leah behind him.

  Jamin cast a dark look over his shoulder. He spread his hands toward both groups running the length of the dam. A blast of wind hit her square in the chest and she stumbled back. Callum’s hands dragged down her arms, hands, fingers, until they were torn apart and she sprawled against the cold concrete of the dam.

  Leah’s skin crawled with the first sound of Jamin’s dark laugh filling the night. He was daring her to look at what he’d done.

  Scared at what she’d find and unable to look away, she raised her head and found Callum with a knife to his throat. There was no help coming; Judah’s team beat vainly at an invisible wall on either side of the dam.

  “You took what was mine. I’ll take what is yours,” Jamin said quietly.

  “Stop this,” she pleaded. She rose to her knees, then pushed to her feet. She stretched out one hand, not knowing what good it would do but needing to be that much closer to Callum. She couldn’t touch him, couldn’t feel his strength, but she could imagine the feel of his skin under her fingers.

  He tried to jerk out of Jamin’s arms, but Jamin only made a noise of admonishment and pressed his free hand to Callum’s shoulder. Smoke rose from the touch and the fabric of his shirt burned away.

  Jamin kicked the back of Callum’s knees and forced him to kneel. “Blood is needed. The fae below offered themselves as sacrifice, but it wasn’t enough. The vampire we caught before coming here, still not enough. Your Broken powered the orb since they were created. I need that power to open the veil and you spilled all the blood I collected.”

  “Let him go and you can have me.”

  The words tumbled from her lips before she could even think them into existence. She meant every word. She’d searched for atonement since walking away from her bloody childhood home. She’d helped Jamin in his early stages of testing Bearden’s defenses and responses. It was time to pay for her sins. She couldn’t let Jamin kill Callum.

  “No!” Callum growled. His eyes flashed gold and his lips pulled back in a snarl. A wave of power washed over her and she struggled against it. Turn around, it whispered. Walk away.

  She couldn’t leave him to Jamin.

  She grit her teeth and planted her feet. She wouldn’t leave Callum behind. “Let him go and you can have me,” she repeated.

  Jamin pressed his hand harder into Callum’s shoulder and he writhed in pain. Smoke again rose and the stench of burning flesh reached her nose.

  “You think I’m that stupid?” Jamin demanded.

  She tried to put on her most confident face. “I think you’re that sure of yourself.”

  “Leah, go. You’re safe while he has me,” Callum said between bared teeth.

  Jamin pressed closer with his knife and blood welled where it pierced Callum’s skin. “You’ll never be safe. You let me do this now, or I’ll burn your fantasy of protection to the ground.”

  A roar filled the night. Distant. Angry. Jamin looked to the skies to find the source, not once letting go of knife or Callum.

  Wings beat against the air and another roar shook the darkness. Triumph smeared across Jamin’s lips.

  Fire streaked out of the dragon’s maw and hit nothing. The flames spread out across the invisible dome above them and sank toward the ground.

  Jamin laughed as they were enclosed in a wall of fire. “Is that all you’ve got!” he shouted into the air. “I have the power of a half-dozen fae coursing through me. Dragonfire is nothing against me!”

  Callum shifted his eyes to the side and the water. Leah froze, waiting.

  “Jump.”

  Callum shoved an elbow into Jamin’s stomach as she flung herself into the water.

  Even below the surface, she could hear the piercing roar of an angry dragon. Fire bathed the water above her and she struggled to stay submerged. The temperature difference between what she felt on her face and her toes was staggering.

  Finally, when she thought she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, the fire vanished.

  Leah broke through the water and sucked in a shuddering breath. She bobbed there, trying to ignore the chill that ran down to her bones, and searched for find any signs of movement.

  “Callum,” she urged. “Please, please, please.”

  Bubbles floated around her, then Callum surfaced with a gasp. Her eyes found his shoulder first, angry and swollen. His hair clung to his head and concern lined his expression. “Are you hurt?” he demanded.

  “Cold.” Her teeth chattered. “Not hurt. Where’s Jamin?”

  Callum jerked his chin to the dam. “Gideon took care of him.”

  “Good.” Relief coursed through her, followed quickly by a wave of guilt. She survived with Callum’s willingness to sacrifice himself. She should have been the one to burn under Jamin’s touch, not him. She caused the entire mess, but he was the one who paid for her crimes.

  “Callum,” she started. Movement along the river’s edge caught her eye and stilled her tongue. Bears, big cats, even a wolf or two, emerged among those still in human form.

  How many of them were still alive because Jamin had failed?

  How many would want to kill her for helping Jamin in the first place?

  “Come on,” Callum urged, taking the first stroke toward land. “Let’s get you dry.”

  Chapter 26
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  Leah wasn’t sure how long or how many times she repeated her story. She lost consciousness with the rest of them from the blast of magic. From there, she woke in Jamin’s dam of horrors.

  Magic! It still didn’t seem real when she thought about it. But she couldn’t reconcile everything that’d taken place from the moment she entered Bearden to that night without being a believer.

  Her mouth dropped open and her stomach turned as she watched one body after another be removed from the inside of the dam. She’d been able to ignore them and fight her way out before, but the shock wore off as soon as a thick blanket wrapped around her shoulders and the questions began.

  Jamin intended for her to be another body. She owed him no allegiance. Callum had her loyalty, and not just because he saved her life.

  At her first jaw-cracking yawn, Callum stepped in and called off Judah’s questioning. He bundled her into his truck that Cole and Nolan delivered before they turned back into town. With Jamin’s trick at the dam, all the distracting fires around Bearden had extinguished themselves and they had little work to do.

  They rode back to his cabin in silence. The air in the truck remained breathable, but heavy in a way that had nothing to do with any dominance tricks. Nerves fluttered in Leah’s belly; she knew what would come as soon as she stepped into Callum’s home. She’d left questions behind and faced even more.

  A bonfire greeted them when Callum turned into the clearing. The flames glowed cheerfully, but the scent of burning hair reached her nose even before she slid out of the truck. The size of it, too, made it clear what was burning.

  The rest of the clan stood vigil for their mad, fallen member.

  “Should we stay?” Leah asked quietly, tugging on Callum’s hand.

  He looked toward the fire and she could feel the sadness around him. He’d done what was needed to protect her and the others in his clan, but it would weigh on him.

  She liked that he didn’t accept killing so easily. It helped soothe the open wound of her own crime. They were similar, in a way. Both were done out of a place of protection. She’d been horrified when she first heard him defend the blood on her hands, but she could nearly accept it after the night’s events.

  Sometimes, to save others, there needed to be death. Rabid animals weren’t allowed to continue to hunt and hurt. Her father and Bruce couldn’t be allowed to keep inflicting pain on everyone around them.

  “It’s not right for the victor of a challenge fight to stay,” Callum explained softly. “It’s a gesture of respect for the mourners so they don’t need to curb their grieving. We pay our respects the following day.”

  He turned away from the fire and his clan and opened his door to lead her inside. He flicked on lights as he went, brightening up the living room and kitchen.

  Leah felt almost surreal to be standing in his home. It was a normal home in a normal cabin, but madness circled outside. Fights to the death, magical battles, dragons and fire...

  Somewhere along the line, she’d stepped out of her normal life and into one she never knew existed. She’d eased into the craziness when she learned shifters and vampires and fae existed. But then she’d plunged feet first into what, exactly, that meant.

  Instead of wanting to run away screaming, she wanted to let the currents carry her deeper.

  “Beer?”

  Leah blinked at the sudden question and found Callum at his fridge with the door wide open. “Got anything stiffer?” She tried to toss him a smile and failed.

  He pulled a bottle of whiskey out of a cabinet and poured them both a healthy glass. “Jamin was the one who ran you off the road? The one who had the map?”

  She nodded, head hanging low. She wanted this to be over, but he had every right to demand her answers. She wasn’t in the clear just yet. He’d told her they would see where they stood once Jamin was found.

  Jamin had been found and burned to a pile of ash. She needed to give Callum her words. “I thought the map was just hidden money. Treasure. I never expected him to try to kill me to get it back.”

  “It is treasure, in a way. They were all other enclaves, though I don’t know some of them. We’ll be able to reach out and maybe find more of us. I’m sure he planned to move from one to the next trying to open up the veil between worlds.”

  She took a sip of the whiskey and relished in the burn against her tongue and throat. An idea sparked to life, and she blurted it out before he could continue his questions. “How did you know Gideon would be able to get through that wall Jamin built around us?”

  Callum shrugged. His lips quirked in a grin he quickly wiped off his face. “I didn’t. I just needed to get you to safety.”

  She wanted to smack him, but he was too quick for her. He snagged the glass from her hand and snared her wrists in his. He held her still and unable to escape. “I would do anything to keep you safe.”

  The words renewed the fluttering in her stomach and all because she didn’t doubt a single syllable. She wanted to believe him. She wanted to hope nothing would ever go sour between them. He wouldn’t turn out like her father and she wouldn’t become her mother.

  Opening herself up to that sort of devotion frightened and exhilarated her.

  “What about the rest of it?” She didn’t need to say anything. He knew.

  Callum gave her a loaded look. “As far as Judah and the rest of the town know, you were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jamin was, like Quincy said, here to gain our objects of fae magic. He had a delightful surprise when he spotted a human in town and made his move. No need to harvest one elsewhere and then make a new trip. He had everything set to go.”

  “But Bruce knew—”

  “The ravings of a madman? No one will believe him over me.” He released her hands and cupped her cheeks. “I promise you, you have no reason to run. I will take your secrets to my grave. And I know you don’t want protection, so I give you a price for my silence. Be my mate. Be part of my clan. Make a life here in Bearden.”

  “Yes,” she said at once. There was nothing to think about, nothing to give her hesitation. She decided before Bruce dragged her into his truck. She planned to tell Callum everything and accept the consequences.

  And now it seemed the only price he required of her was a life she hadn’t dared hope to live.

  Heat flared inside her and time seemed to slow. Callum leaned down and pressed his forehead against hers. She swallowed hard, feeling a melon work its way down her throat. He was so big and so powerful, and all he wanted was her. After convincing herself for so long that she was broken and ugly on the inside, he was shining a bright light on everything and telling her how much he wanted her. Flaws and all.

  Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes, she chanted in her head. She chose him and Bearden and everything weird and crazy and exciting that came with him and the town. Mates and clan and enclave and all. She was his. Had been from the moment he talked her into climbing out of her wrecked car.

  How apt, she mused. Wrecked car, wrecked life, and Callum was her hero in both.

  “Yes,” she repeated in a whisper. “I want us. I want this.”

  Callum swallowed the growl that wanted to overtake him. Slow, bear.

  She needed slow. She needed to be cherished. He would take his time with her, make her claw his back and scream his name. Make her understand that they belonged entirely to each other.

  He untucked the blanket from around her shoulders and let it fall to the floor. He peeled her shirt off, then his. Heat blasted off her damp skin as soon as he pressed a palm to the small of her back and dragged her closer.

  “Your shoulder,” she protested weakly.

  He caught her chin between his fingers and spoke the same words she told him. “I won’t break. Don’t treat me like I’m fragile.”

  And, truthfully, the sting of the burn still pained him. He’d be healed by morning, according to the paramedic who insisted on looking it over. But there was nothing that would stop him from claiming Lea
h.

  She overwhelmed his senses. Soft skin, delicious scent, breath exhaling as fast as she could suck air into her lungs. His bear pushed and pushed in his head to bind her to them.

  Slow, bear.

  Callum shoved his hands down over the swell of her ass and lifted her easily. Her legs wrapped around him and threatened his own resolve to take his time. His cock pressed hard against his zipper and the sweet scent of her arousal made him twitch.

  Leah wound her arms around his neck and dragged his face to meet hers in a kiss of clashing tongues and teeth. It was perfect and utterly her. Rough around the edges, standing up to whatever blocked her path, and demanding the world make a place for her. By the Broken, she was perfect and all his.

  “Mine,” he growled and dipped his tongue between her lips again. He trusted instinct to get him to his room—their den—because he was too busy drowning in the taste of her.

  He toed his boots off as he went and heard the matching racket of her shoes hitting the floor behind him. His lips never left her. Cheeks, neck, chest, everything was fair game.

  His brain nearly short-circuited when she reached behind and unsnapped her bra. Skin to skin. He held her close with one hand and worked the other between them. Fuck, he had to stop. Had to breathe.

  Had to taste.

  He pinned her to the nearest wall. Hand cupped around her breast, fingers pinching and rolling her nipple, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and left a trail of biting, sucking kisses until he reached her ear.

  “You’re fucking gorgeous,” he murmured. He snaked his tongue out and traced the shell.

  Breath heavy, she wiggled against him. “Callum,” she urged. “Bed. Now.”

  Fuck yes, that’s where they were going. She agreed to be his mate and nothing would get in his way.

  He let her spill from his arms and followed her down to the mattress. He struggled against the pounding of his blood and trailed light, teasing kisses down her neck and across her collarbone. He cupped her breasts and teased her nipples into tight buds before he dotted them each with a hard suck then a cool breath of air.