Shifters Forever Worlds Mega Box: Volume 1

by Thorne, Elle

  * * *

  She bathed Dominic and tucked him into her bed, a habit that he was getting way too accustomed to. She’d have to break him of it.

  Why? It’s not like it matters. Who else is in my bed?

  She shoved the thought aside, disgusted with herself and the idea that she would always be alone.

  Marti kissed her sleeping son and wondered if she wanted to read or watch TV tonight. After shoving her hair into a ponytail, she threw on a tank and a pair of shorts. She clicked the nightlight on in her bedroom, flipped the overhead light off and went into the living room.

  She’d just decided that it would be TV and had picked up the remote when a knock on the door made her pause.

  Had Heather forgotten something? Marti glanced around, didn’t see anything, shrugged and opened the door.

  “Tanner.”

  He stood in her doorway, almost as wide as the door itself, arms folded over his big chest. “Couldn’t wait to get away, could you?”

  “I… well, I…” What the hell was she supposed to say? Sure, I want to sit by and watch you hook up with Mae. That’s my heart’s desire.

  Fury welled up in her chest at the insensitivity of his question. Couldn’t he tell how she felt about him? Did he have no fucking clue? She lost it. Both palms on his chest, she shoved him. It pissed her off that it didn’t make him budge, not even an inch.

  “You’re a bastard, you know that?”

  He had the audacity to look shocked. “Me? I’m not the one who has a boyfriend at home waiting for me while I’m making out with someone else, am I?”

  “What?” Shit. She hadn’t meant to screech it out.

  “Momma?” Dominic peeked his head out from around the corner of her bedroom.

  Oh, no. Damn. No.

  Tanner turned around.

  She could see the questions crossing his face, even though she didn’t know exactly what words he was using.

  She could only imagine: A kid? What? Was that? No. No?

  His mouth moved, but it was as though he couldn’t put together a coherent thought.

  “You have a son? Where’s the—his fa—”

  He studied Dominic as he approached. Marti tried to look at it through Tanner’s eyes.

  Dominic. Eyes black as the night. Hair curly, and equally black. His skin pale like hers.

  Dominic took two more steps forward.

  Tanner sniffed. “He’s…”

  “Don’t say it.” Marti snapped, her voice lined with stone. “Do not say it aloud. He doesn’t know.”

  “How can he not know? How can you? Why do you…?”

  “Sweetie, let’s get you back in bed.”

  “Who’s the man, Momma?” Dominic pointed at Tanner.

  She sighed. “He’s a friend, baby.”

  “He’s like me,” Dominic said.

  Tanner gave her a glance.

  “What? What do you mean? Yes, he’s a boy, like you.”

  “No. He’s a bear, like me.” Dominic’s little face began to change, his skin rippling.

  Marti bit back the scream before it could release itself. Her baby boy shifted into a bear cub right in front of her. Oh. My. God. No. This cannot not be happening.

  He was a baby polar bear, his dark bear skin evident beneath his white fur.

  Tears welled in her eyes as she looked at Tanner. “Are you happy now? Look at what you did. Look at this.” The tears began to pour out, unbidden and unwanted.

  “How are you blaming me? Wait,” Tanner said. “He’s never shifted before?”

  “No. Never.” She screamed the words out.

  Dominic, in his little polar bear form, roared his unhappiness at his mother’s emotional outburst.

  “Come here, baby.” She held her arms out. “Come to Momma. You need to go back to how you were. We need to make rules about when you can do this.”

  “Where is his father?” Tanner asked.

  “You insensitive brute,” she snapped. “Do not ask me any more questions.”

  In her arms, Dominic flailed and made mewling sounds.

  “What’s wrong with him? What is it?” Tears erupted from her eyes, joining sobs she couldn’t control.

  “Calm down.” Tanner’s voice was completely in control. “It’s his first shift. No one has explained it to him, I’m guessing. And he doesn’t know what to do.”

  Dominic snuffled, burying his bear face in her neck.

  “I can’t help him,” she said. “I’m not a shifter. I don’t know how to help him.”

  “I can. Promise me you won’t be afraid?”

  “Afraid of what?” Marti was so confused. Her baby was a shifter, and she couldn’t even help him. She hated his father now more than she’d ever hated him. She wished him dead for cursing her son this way.

  “This.” With a quick motion and the sounds of bones creaking and moving, Tanner became the largest grizzly she’d ever laid eyes on. Not that she had much experience with grizzlies, or bears at all for that matter, but still…

  Dominic stopped crying and mewling. He studied the larger male bear with an obsidian gaze, and reached out a little white paw. Little compared to Tanner’s, but still as large as her own hand.

  Tanner put his paw out, let Dominic touch it, sniff it. Dominic crawled out of Marti’s lap and ambled his way closer to Tanner. He made a complete circle around the large bear, then tucked himself under Tanner’s body.

  Tanner leaned forward. Marti had no way of understanding exactly what they were communicating, but a series of snuffles, grunts, snorts, and even something that sounded like laughter came from the two bears.

  She found herself weeping with joy. She reached for a tissue from the nightstand, sat on the bed, and watched the two bears communicating. Dominic was pale against Tanner’s rich coloration.

  She had no idea how much time had lapsed. It seemed like they were that way forever before Dominic left Tanner and made his way back to Marti, put his paw on her thigh, and shifted into her little boy again.

  Marti swooped him into her arms, held him close, and buried her face into his chubby little neck.

  When she heard the creaking sound she already knew what was happening. She found Tanner back in his own human skin.

  “He’s what you have at home,” Tanner said. “Not a man.”

  “No. No man.” She glanced at him suspiciously.

  “That’s what Dominic said.”

  She looked down at her son. He was wiped out; his dark eyes were closing. Then she looked back at the sexy, bearded man. “He told you that. He talked to you.”

  Tanner nodded.

  She lay Dominic down on the bed and covered him with a sheet.

  “You should probably…”

  She whirled on Tanner, her voice a low hiss. “I should probably what?”

  He put his hands up. “Whoa, Marti. You should probably talk to someone about this.” He shook his head, then his too-sexy-for-her-good lips curved into a small smile. “What did you think I was going to say?”

  She shrugged, then led him to the living room and took a seat on the sofa. “I don’t know. You have no idea what this has been like for me.”

  He sat next to her. “I’m a good listener.” He reached for her hand, his dark gaze with amber highlights holding hers.

  Goosebumps made a quick appearance on her flesh. This man had such an effect on her. No matter what was going on in her mind or her life, he affected her.

  “Yeah, well, you don’t need to hear my problems.”

  “Marti. You’re raising a shifter alone. You don’t know anything about shifters, do you?”

  She shook her head. How the hell could she?

  “His father?”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Marti looked down for so long that Tanner was getting concerned. She took in a deep breath, audible, ragged. Her shoulders rose with the inhale. Then she let it all out in a loud whoosh.

  “I was raped.”

  Fury traveled through Tanner�
�s body, leaving him cold, with an anger in his veins that seared the way that the coldest temperature could sear. She’d been raped? By a shifter? A polar bear shifter, clearly.

  He gripped the coffee table with a white-knuckled fierceness. He didn’t know any polar bear shifter families, personally. He didn’t know if this would be easy enough to trace but he would. Then he’d wreak revenge on the entire clan.

  “Tanner.”

  Her voice brought him back from the chasm of his rage. “What?” He barely managed the words through clenched jaws.

  “I don’t want Dominic to know. I don’t want anyone to know.”

  “No one will. But I will kill the entire miserable clan. I’m certain I can narrow it down. Can you give me any specifics?”

  Her eyes widened, blue on a white background. “No. you can’t do that.”

  He did a double take. “They hurt you. One of theirs hurt you. They will not go unpunished.”

  “And if something happens to you?”

  “Nothing can happen to me.”

  He scented her fear, and it was strong. He pulled back, studied her face, took her hand in his, measured how small it was in his large, calloused palm.

  “You do care.” It wasn’t a question. He needed her to affirm what his bear had already told him.

  She nodded, her lower lip trembling.

  “You trust me with Dominic?” He cocked his head because he knew her protectiveness.

  “Yes. How could you ask that after what I just saw you do with him?”

  “He needs a father.” Tanner brought her fingertips to his lips and planted tender kisses on the pad of each finger.

  “I can’t help him with that.” Her words were a low whisper.

  The scent of her desire for him was strong, filling his lungs, overtaking all his other senses.

  “I can.”

  “We’re a package deal.” She gasped the words out softly so as not to awaken Dominic, but unable to control the passion he could scent.

  “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He took her face between his hands, cupping her cheeks gently. “Mae’s going to be thrilled. Another nephew.”

  “I don’t know. You think it would be wise to take him there? To have him meet Mae or anyone else shifter-associated? I’ve fought so hard to keep him away from the shifter world.”

  “How is it I didn’t scent him on you?” His brow rose. “You used block on yourself?”

  She nodded.

  “My beautiful, resourceful woman.” Pride swelled within him at the lengths she had gone to in order to protect Dominic. “He’s quite the little man, you know.” He smirked teasingly. “For a polar bear, that is.”

  Tanner rose and closed the door to her bedroom, returned and pulled her to her feet.

  “What are you doing, Tanner?” Her soft words wrapped around his heart, squeezing like a vise. The muscles in his stomach clenched with an urgent need to hold her. His bear flexed deep within him, clenching tighter, pushing Tanner to make her theirs immediately.

  Tanner fought with the bear. He didn’t want to rush the couple bond. She deserved more than that. She and Dominic both deserved the tenderness that she’d never had from a shifter.

  He wanted to make love to her. He wanted to make her beg for him to make her his. He wanted her to know gentleness before she grew to appreciate the roughness he enjoyed.

  He lowered his head and licked a slow, sensuous trail over her lips. She leaned in to him, responding to the tenderness in his touch. He tasted her lips, her tongue, the soft skin on her neck, the tender skin in the spot where he would couple bond her when she was ready, between her shoulder and neck.

  He drew air in through his nostrils, a deep draw that allowed her scent to dwell on his senses, to experience the pull she had on him.

  He looked into her eyes, finding a desire and passion for him that mirrored the depths he felt for her. The bear in him growled, eager for her, hungry for her.

  “Tanner.”

  Her whisper corralled a surge of energy within him, harnessing it, then unleashing it on his body, making currents slide through his veins, burning hot for her.

  He’d never wanted a woman like this. He wouldn’t be denied. He hoped that wasn’t denial on her lips, because there was no denial in her eyes.

  His hand followed his tongue, his thumb resting on that delicate pulse on her neck, feeling the pulse there racing, beating against his calloused thumb pad.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Tanner’s tongue and mouth were driving her crazy. Days of pent-up desire for him, months of no contact, no intimacy, had turned Marti into a messed-up, mixed-up bundle of sexual energy.

  “Mmm-hmmm?” He drew his questioned murmur out in a long, sexy note.

  Flames crowded her cheeks, neck, and chest. His thumb was on her telltale pulse, reading her craving for him. Every pore on her body begged for his touch. She wanted to scream at him to take her, to claim her, and make her his the way she knew he could.

  His hands drifted downward, following the curve of her sexy hourglass. Her core flooded with desire as his extra-large palms and fingers cupped her ass, pulling her even tighter against a length of steel that pressed against her, seeking her center, seeking release for both of them.

  She needed to keep it together, not only for Dominic’s sake but also for her own. The touch of Tanner’s fingers burned into her ass, even through her shorts.

  One hand rose up her back, scoring her flesh with desire as it began to trail the neckline of her tank top. If she took one breath, one more breath, she swore she’d pounce on the man. She wanted to take him as much as she wanted him to take her.

  “Tanner.” Her whisper was more insistent, more intense.

  “Hmmm?” His murmur was sexy, heating her flesh with his hot breath.

  “Kiss me. I need you to kiss me. Remind me what love is.” She’d wanted this reminder for so long. Her body craved it.

  His voice was gravelly when he answered, “I’ll kiss you, but I can’t promise that I’ll stop there.”

  “Don’t stop,” she moaned. “Never stop.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Tanner didn’t need to be asked twice. He wrapped an arm around her waist, the other hand took her wrist and tugged her until they were against the wall, his body pressed against her soft, curvy one.

  Driving his tongue into her mouth, he held her prisoner. Her soft moans were fuel for his desire.

  When he tugged on her tank top, the fabric tore, revealing a bra that barely held her creamy, rose-tipped mounds in. Her chest pumped for breath, making them rise and fall, tempting him over and over. His cock ached with a need for her.

  He shoved the bra down, straps over her shoulders, impatient and tired of waiting. He lowered his head to suck one of her light pink nipples in. He latched on to it, sucking it in deeply, releasing it with a pop. His fingers reached for her other nipple, tweaked it and tugged it, then rolled it between his fingertips while it grew harder and harder.

  He smelled the scent of what this playing was doing to her. The scent of her was making his cock pulse with the fiercest of needs to touch and taste the source of that amazing scent.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  An overload of sensations pulled Marti into a zone where nothing else existed except for Tanner, his hands, his mouth, his tongue, and the knowledge of his cock waiting for her. Only her.

  His lips on her breast and his hand on her other breast were overwhelming, but they did nothing to satisfy the aching, pulsing need between her legs. When he bit down on her nipple, she almost had an orgasm. Her hand flew down to her shorts and pushed them off one-handed, alternating between hips until they were down low enough to shimmy them off. Tanner’s tongue and hand never missed a beat.

  She dropped her hand between her legs, slipped a finger between her folds, and found that the wetness he’d created was already drenching her and running down her thighs.

  He pulled his mouth away from her nipple an
d breathed in deeply. “I know what you’re doing.”

  Her fingers didn’t stop even though he was watching her hand. He pulled on her nipples with both hands while he watched her touching herself.

  “Fuck. You are so goddamned hot.”

  The way he said it made her muscles clench. Her fingers moved faster and faster in tight circles on her clit.

  “I want to watch you fuck yourself,” he whispered in her ear. “Now.”

  “Oh, god.” The words passed over her tongue, leaving her breathless and tormented with pleasure and the denial of pleasure. She wanted this man so bad. The way he turned her on and left her needing him made her want to do the dirtiest things to herself. “Now?” she whispered.

  “Now.” His brushed his lips over her nipple, his beard teasing the puckered, sensitive flesh, lighting it further on fire as she imagined that beard between her legs as he licked the area she’d stripped of any hair.

  She shoved a finger in and closed her eyes in pleasure. A gasp followed by an exhaled breath escaped her.

  She moved her finger in and out.

  “That’s it, Marti. Fuck yourself the way you want me to.” His breath was hot on her nipple, then she felt it traveling lower.

  She held her breath, unable to release it while his tongue made a slow, slick trail over her stomach. She pushed her finger in, then pulled it out. In, out.

  “Put another in,” he said.

  She obeyed, enjoying the filling sensation. When his hot tongue separated her folds and brushed her clit, Marti jumped.

  She couldn’t concentrate on moving her fingers as his tongue swiped at her clit, faster and faster, then sucked and licked. He pressed her legs further apart and she let the wall prop her up.

  She didn’t even notice her fingers had come out and were on his head, holding him there, until his fingers slid into her, two, then a third, stretching her, driving deep, then curling upward while his tongue tormented her with its insistent swiping, flicking, and sucking.