“For what?”
“To lose him.”
Nope. That was something she’d never be prepared for.
11
Where was she? Where was his mate—his shuarra?
Owen sat up and breathed deeply, searching for more of her scent. He touched the side of the bed where Tara had slept next to him all night. Heaven. That’s what it’d been. To hold her all night. To have her know his secret and not be afraid. To see that look of longing in her eyes that mirrored his own. She wanted him. She was attracted to him as much as he was to her. Of that he was sure.
Now the space that her warm soft body had filled was empty. The worn beige sheets were rumpled and cold.
“Tara?” She wouldn’t have left, right? She’d just gotten up to look around. Or maybe Ava had woken her up. She was always so noisy in the kitchen making her stupid tea. She loved tea. It’d been her favorite thing back home and was still her favorite thing on this world too.
Boots clumped down the hallway. His heart unfroze and resumed its regular rhythm. He’d know those footsteps anywhere. She wore the same pair of boots everywhere she went, and they had a unique hollow sound to them, not like his heavy work boots. Or like his sister’s.
The door opened, and Tara appeared. Her red hair was loose and shimmered like living flames in a campfire. Her green eyes were sad though, carrying a weight much too heavy. A weight that he had put on her shoulders the second he’d stepped into her life.
The light smell of his sister’s favorite tea floated through the air along with Tara. “Ava already left?”
Tara nodded and walked to the bed and sat beside him. Their legs didn’t touch, but she leaned just enough toward him that their arms connected. Her sweet scent filled his lungs, calming the bear clawing at his insides.
He needed to shift. To roam as his animal. It’d been too long. He was putting everyone in danger the longer he went. The short shift and fight in the store hadn’t been enough. His bear had tasted blood. Stretched its legs. And it wanted more.
The only thing calming him was Tara. Her presence. Her touch. The soft glow of magick radiating from her pale skin.
She took a deep breath and then paused, like she knew what she wanted to say, but was afraid to say it.
“What did Ava say?”
“That I needed to be ready to lose you.”
Owen released a long sigh. It wasn’t a lie. No matter how this went, he likely would die at the hands of the dragon. Once the tribe found out. Once Col knew he had moved closer to taking a mate…it was only a matter of time. Laws on Reylea were old and steeped in tradition. He’d lost his tribe. He was weak in the eyes of others. Not worthy of a mate. Not worthy of young.
It was how it had always been. It didn’t matter that he’d lost to a dishonorable male—a cheater. He’d still been beaten and that’s all anyone would ever see.
“What, no argument? You’re just going to let him kill you because of what…some stupid law that shouldn’t even apply here. In case you hadn’t noticed, this is earth. New planet, new rules. Right?”
Owen sighed. If only. He wrapped an arm around Tara and pulled her closer, tucking her head beneath his chin. He breathed deeply, relishing her scent. “There is nothing I can do. Col knows I will not leave you and he has made it clear he will enforce Reylean law. Even if I left, I would still bear the mark. Col is not the only one who can see it.”
“He’s the only one here. You could leave. We could leave.” His mate tensed in his arms and Owen wished for a half a second that he was selfish enough to ask Tara to run with him, but he wasn’t. And he didn’t want to run.
“Others came through all over this world, Tara. The portal that opened near Mystery, was only one of many.”
“So, there’ll be more bears and dragons and wolves popping up all over the place? No matter where we went.”
“Yes. I won’t ask you to leave your home and I won’t live on the run wondering who will see my mark next. I will face my fight with Col and die with honor, not as the weak outcast they see me as now.”
“It’s not fair.” Her voice was soft now. Breathless and choked on emotion.
He hated hearing her upset. She’d had so much difficulty lately. Her father. Taking over the store all on her own. Now his presence had brought the wolves into her orbit as well. All his fault.
“I just found you. We found each other. I don’t want you to die.” Her arms wrapped around his waist and her breathing turned to sobs. “I’m sorry I’m all weepy. I know we don’t really know each other really well, but I feel like we do. I feel like we’re connected more than I realize. And now I’m just rambling on…and—” She buried her face against his shirt. The salt of her tears tinged the air and Owen took another deep breath to calm his inner beast. The bear roared with fury, fighting a battle for control Owen knew he would eventually lose.
All he ever wanted was for Tara to be happy. He’d prefer it if he were in the picture, but he’d survive without her if only it meant she was happy. Safe. Secure. Loved. The tribe would watch out for her…they’d said as much already. They just wouldn’t stand by and allow him to take her as his mate.
At least not for very long.
He stroked her hair and down her back. “You deserve better, my mate. My shuarra. I’m sorry.”
Tara wriggled in his arms and pushed against his chest.
He released her and looked down into her fiery green eyes. “I don’t deserve anything. I want you. I pick you.”
“You’ve been the one leaving firewood for me at the house, haven’t you? You’re the one that fixed that porch light that went out last week. The rusted hinges on the back door of the store. Things have been magically being fixed for months. And it’s been you…all this time. I never caught you. Never saw you, but I knew.”
She rotated her body, sliding a leg over his lap to straddle him. Threw her arms around his neck and claimed his mouth like she owned his soul.
She did. She just didn’t know it yet.
His dick jumped quickly to attention and his bear for moment stopped fighting. She smelled like his own personal heaven—his forbidden garden, but no matter what he told himself, he couldn’t pull away. Wouldn’t.
She licked along the seams of his lips and he opened for her, taking in her sweet taste. It lit his blood on fire. He wrapped his hands around her body and pulled her tight, enjoying the firmness of her breasts against his chest.
Tara nipped at his bottom lip. Then the top.
A shuddered growl rippled up through his lungs. “We can’t.”
“I pick you too,” she said and bit into his chin with a little more force. Nothing he minded. Those words were everything he’d ever dreamed of hearing from her lips. And his bear wanted to let his woman have or do anything her little heart desired. His skin ached to feel her claw at his back. His arms. She grabbed the bottom of his flannel shirt and yanked it loose from where he’d tucked it into his jeans. Then over his head and sailing behind her to land on the bare floor.
“More clothes,” she whined, palming his chest over the thinner fabric of the thermal shirt. She repeated the process, pulling and tugged until he was bare from the waist up and never once had she removed her mouth from his. Their tongues tangled and danced and his whole world slowed to this moment in time. Only Tara existed. Her sweet taste. Her beautiful body. Her glowing soul that made him more desperate to claim her every second they continued to touch.
He stroked his hand across Tara’s cheek. She pulled back for a moment and their gazes met. She returned the caress, starting at his shoulders, then sliding up his neck until she sank her fingers into the think mane of dark hair. She grasped handfuls and raised herself to eyelevel and stared straight into his soul.
“I’m going to need you naked. Right now.”
Heaven. Naked heaven. Owen cupped Tara’s face and took control, kissing her hard enough to make her whimper. He slid his tongue into her mouth, reveling in the delightful taste of his mate
. His hands slid down from her face, to her back, then to her perfectly heart-shaped ass.
He turned, lifting his body slightly, then rotated, laying her out on his bed like a buffet meal. She was still dressed and that wasn’t going to work for him either. He grabbed the bottom of her shirt and pulled it up and over her head, tossing it over his shoulder to join his on the floor. The only thing between him and her breasts now, was a contraption his sister had informed him was called a bra. Tara’s was white and silky and see-through. Her dark pink nipples pebbled beneath it, taunting and tempting him. He licked his lips and leaned down over her, looking for a latch or a tie.
“Off,” he said, his voice more of a growl than human. He tugged a strap off her shoulder. Her pale cheeks flamed red and her arms disappeared behind her back for a moment. The fabric holding her breasts captive came loose. Owen grasped the bra and pulled it away, allowing Tara to maneuver her arms out of the straps in the process.
No hesitation in his mind. His worries from earlier banished at the beautiful vision of his mate, lying beneath him, panting and eager and needy. He closed his mouth around one of her breasts, smiling against her flesh when a gasp hissed from between her lips. Her hands closed around his head, pulling him closer. Her fingers knotted in his hair and she arched her back, moaning with each swipe and swirl of his tongue around her rock-hard nipple.
“Still too many clothes.” Her voice was breathy and her heart pounded so hard in her chest Owen could hear it above his own.
He finished with the first breast and moved to the other, refusing to forgo tasting both her luscious round heavy globes. He loved the way her skin was dotted with freckles, like someone had spattered her entire body with cinnamon—his favorite spice on this new world. She tasted better. Sweet. And aroused. And just right.
“Owen.”
By Fate, he loved the way his name rolled off her lips. He swirled his tongue around a taut nipple one last time and then pushed up and away from her. Tara’s arms fell to her sides. Her chest rose and fell. Her mouth was open and her lips were swollen from their earlier kisses. Her breasts were flushed from his attention. Her scent.
Damn. He could smell how wet she was. How much she wanted him. He kicked off his boots, stripped out of his jeans and thermals, baring everything to her hungry gaze. She was amazing. The way she looked at him made everything worth it. Everything it’d taken to get to this moment.
“Condoms?”
The squeaked question didn’t mean anything to him. He canted his head and met her questioning gaze. “I don’t know what that is.”
“They are safeguards against diseases and pregnancy. Little rubbers that cover…” Her gaze trailed to his erection. She swallowed and the scent of her arousal in the room doubled.
“I am not ill and I would never try to prevent a pregnancy with my shuarra—my mate,” he said, correcting his language for her benefit.
“I…” Her hesitation hung in the air. Tara glanced down at his steel-hard cock again. “I’m on birth control anyway, so we should be fine. I’m not ready for babies, just so you know.”
Her comment about birth control still didn’t make sense to him. He would have to ask Leif to explain at some point. “I look forward to changing your mind, my sweet shuarra.” Owen leaned over her half-bared body, gripped the waist of her pants and pulled them down, panties and all in one smooth movement all the way down to her ankles where they stopped. Her boots were preventing him from completely stripping her.
A giggle erupted from Tara’s chest and the sound soothed over Owen’s soul like a balm. He smiled at her and attacked the laces on her boots, freeing each foot in quick succession and then removing the jeans and panties completely.
This woman. She was so beautiful. And his. Fate had chosen her for him. The glow was just for him. Her skin was luminescent, white and glowing with magick—something he never thought he would get to experience in his lifetime. And now, here of all places in the universe Fate was giving him a chance and he had been willing to look the other way. Maybe it would be better to take Tara and run?
No, it wouldn’t.
He wasn’t that kind of man. He loved his mate. Even if it were only for this one morning. He would die content and happy, knowing that he’d gotten to feel the whole of her body and soul at least once. It was selfish. But he just couldn’t tell her no…not again.
“Let’s try this again,” he said and buried his face between her legs. Tara’s heart attempted to leap from her chest. Her body went rigid until the first swipe of his tongue against her already wet slit. His hands pushed apart her thighs so he could get closer.
“O-owen—” She trailed out his name while her brain tried to process all the pleasure coursing up and down her body with his every touch, lick, and… oh, God! She waffled between trying to push his head away and yanking it closer.
She wasn’t going to last.
His tongue was magick.
Had to be.
Her friends had talked about a man going down on them, but this…this was beyond description. She’d never experienced anything that made her feel like she was floating on air. Completely relaxed. Not a care in the world was allowed to enter her mind at this current moment. It was all Owen. All pleasure.
She started to shake, vibrating like someone had flipped a switch. Her body was on fire and sweat slicked every inch of her skin. The moan that had been rolling around in her chest had turned into a high-pitched whine, broken by her lungs panting for air.
He closed his mouth over her clit and that shoved her right off the edge of the cliff. Her legs clamped down on his body, her hands wrenched at the handfuls of hair she was still holding, and her whole torso curled up off the bed as a scream she didn’t think she was capable of making sliced through the cold morning air in his bedroom.
Owen didn’t stop. Damn man just kept at her, driving her right up the wall again. The things he could do with his tongue. With his lips. It shouldn’t be legal and she certainly wasn’t ever going to share with her friends. This man was all hers and she wasn’t going to kiss and tell.
Her body clenched around him again and another scream tore from her throat, more animalistic than human. All the stress she’d been holding onto. All the pain of watching her father get worse and then better and then worse again. Watching her mother be strong and not cry. Everything that had happened with the store. Meeting Owen. The attack. Finding out what Owen was. Finding out the world was a lot bigger than she could’ve ever realized. Finding out that this amazing man wasn’t allowed to have her. That she wasn’t allowed to have him.
Another scream. Another explosion inside her body ricocheted around inside her until she fell back in exhaustion. She released Owen’s hair and let her arms fall limply to her side. Warm tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and ran down the sides of her temples, disappearing into her hair.
“I need you,” she croaked out, her voice raw. The words came out sounding more like a choked sob. Here he was giving her everything and she was coming apart at the seams, bawling like a toddler with a scraped knee.
“I know, shuarra.” He kissed a trail up her stomach, using his magical tongue again on each of her breasts. His big hands slid beneath her back and dragged her to the center of the bed before he positioned his cock at her wet slit. His enormous body hung over her. Waiting.
She looked up and met his gaze. His honey-brown eyes now glittered with a golden color that took her breath away.
“I know,” he repeated, kissing her gently on her lips. Then he rubbed his face against hers, softly on one side and then on the other, his stubble scratching soothingly against her wet cheeks, wiping away the tears.
She hadn’t said anything, but he understood her tears didn’t mean she wanted him to stop. This was what she’d needed for so long and didn’t know it. Him.
Owen slid his cock inside her slowly, allowing her body to adjust to the invasion. It was throbbing. So big. Filling her so much there was almost a hint of pain,
but not in a bad way. She wanted this so much she couldn’t think straight.
“More,” Tara whispered.
Owen’s golden gaze flashed brighter for a moment and a soft grin pulled at the corners of his mouth. “I will give you everything I have,” he said, his voice a breathy whisper against her neck as he lowered his body closer to hers, pressing her deep into the mattress. Then he started to move, stroking her swollen insides until she felt the telltale pressure of an orgasm returning.
“I can’t,” she squeaked. “Not again. There’s nothing left.”
“Oh, but I think you can, shuarra.”
He drew his hips back and forth, driving into her with a controlled force that rocketed her right back up to the ledge. Their eyes stayed locked on each other. There was nothing in the moment between them. They were holding onto each other like their very lives depended on it. Her fingers dug into his thick biceps. He was on his elbows with his arms beneath her and his hands curling around to the front of her shoulders, locking her into place.
“Owen.” Tara’s voice was breathless.
“Now, Tara. Come.” His order turned into a roar and he buried his face against her neck, opening his mouth and biting down. Hard.
The pain burst through her like an overflowing fountain, her orgasm struck again and she cried out, letting her voice join with his. She could feel everything and nothing at all. Pain and pleasure had melded into one thing.
Owen had settled on top of her like a weighted blanket. Their hearts were both racing. She could feel his competing against hers. Tara thought both of them were gasping for air, but once her senses cleared she realized Owen was breathing normally and the sound she’d heard was him…licking…her shoulder. It stung a little and throbbed. That was going to be one hell of a hickey. And she was going to be damn proud of it.
She smiled and snuggled her face against his neck, breathing in his earthy scent. She’d never get enough of it.
Bearly Hanging On: Soulmate Shifters in Mystery, Alaska Book 3 Page 10