by A. B Lee
“He might be your mate — but, I still wouldn’t challenge the alpha if I were you,” Roland warned her with a small shake of his head, and another chuckle to boot.
“You’re not me — and why do you think I was challenging him?” Rayner looked confused. “Am I challenging you?” She shot a look at Roland. “Is this challenging?”
“You – know,” Dane started slowly to bring her attention back toward him. “It’s customary to wait for an answer when you’ve asked a question,” he offered back with an easy smile that kept her mesmerized on him for the longest moment — then her mind spun once more.
“Where’s your brother?” Rayner demanded. She scanned the area for a sign of Bowie.
“Can you say the attention span of a goldfish?” Roland chuckled, and Dane offered him a warning growl.
“It’s not funny,” Dane grumbled.
“I never said it was,” Roland held his hands up to his chest and gave a small shake of his head, but he couldn’t stop the chuckle rolling through his chest.
“Bowie isn’t here,” Dane assured her.
Rayner looked kind of disappointed with his answer. He had the feeling that she was gunning for his brother — and he couldn’t blame her.
“Then what the hell is the point of being a bear shifter when you can’t let your bear out and chew on someone?” Rayner demanded.
“You know what?” Dane gave a slow nod of his head before he turned his gaze on Roland. The man snapped to attention. “Have at him.”
“Seriously?” Rayner kind of liked that idea.
“He’s joking,” Roland said as he growled a warning at his brother. But the smirk that spread across Dane’s face went from ear to ear and told him otherwise.
“I guess you’re going to have to sharpen your claws at some point,” Dane chuckled.
Roland shook his head in disbelief and grumbled something under his breath.
“Go on, take one for the team,” Dane chuckled. “You did say anything I need.”
“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” Roland grumbled another growl as he reached up and yanked his shirt over his head. “Well, she’s gonna have to catch me first.” His eyes lit up with amusement.
He might not have been the alpha, but his bear was pretty damn speedy as bears went, and he’d run her ragged over the land before she caught up to him. He’d appreciate not having his backside chewed on.
~
~
~
“I fixed your cabin door to keep the weather out,” Roland informed Bowie as he settled his back against a withered tree that was clinging onto the crumbling land at the drop off where the man had taken root.
“I don’t remember biting her,” Bowie growled in mumbled tones.
His head was down on his neck, and his shoulders were hunched against the wind and rain, and the disgust that he felt within him over what had happened hung heavy.
“Shit happens, get over it.”
“I’ve been waiting for Dane,” Bowie said.
He knew that whatever his brother did to him, he deserved it. He didn’t even hope for a quick death – he deserved a slow painful end to his days; it was only right.
The female would have to live with the curse of her bear for all of her days, and she should have been able to choose that fate. He’d taken that from her.
“He’s busy.”
Bowie couldn’t imagine what the female was going through. He’d been born to it, and still, his bear tormented him something fierce. He hated that he’d cursed her.
“Is she …?” Bowie didn’t know what to ask.
Did she go crazy bear?
Did she hurt anyone?
Did she hurt herself?
Did she … cry? He hated to see a female cry.
“She’s doing pretty good for a bitten,” Roland said with a certain amount of pride in his new sister. “Dane hasn’t wooed her yet, but he’s always been a slow ass.”
“She wants to leave though?”
“She’s not mentioned it, yet. Not when her bear was chasing mine all over the land today to take a bite of my rather fine ass.”
Bowie almost shot a look at his brother back over one hunched shoulder, but he never quite made it. The thought of looking Roland in the eye wasn’t something he relished.
He had to live with his shame; he didn’t want to see it reflected in the looks of his kin.
“If she wants her vengeance – I won’t lift a paw to stop her,” Bowie growled.
Even his beast didn’t rally to the fighting spirit on that one. His bear knew shame as well, shared it, and embraced the thought of being punished for what they’d done in turning the female.
“Damn right you won’t,” Roland growled as he pushed away from the tree and started back up over the rocky outcrop.
In Roland’s mind, Bowie’s suffering was self-inflicted. For too many years the man had been one large furry epitome of a bad mood bear.
He never used to be that way, and Roland didn’t know what had changed within him, but, he kind of missed the man that Bowie used to be. Whatever Dane decided to do about his brother’s transgressions, Bowie was at last understanding the consequences of his actions.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
~
“Get off my land,” Dane growled.
He’d been showing Rayner the spare cabin that he hoped she’d never decided to use when he’d spotted the vampire’s arrival through the dirty living room window. With a word of warning for her to stay inside tossed back over his shoulder; he’d headed out to confront Giles.
“That’s decidedly unfriendly if you,” Giles tossed back. “Especially, as you came to me for help the other night.”
“My mistake,” Dane growled as he planted his feet and readied his bear to burst free the moment that the vampire made his move.
“In asking for my help then, or being rude now?”
“Then.” Dane fisted his hands at his sides as he held onto the beast that was clawing to be unleashed.
“The bitten female…”
“You know her name,” Dane growled back.
“Rayner…”
“There you go…”
“Has she tried killing anyone yet?”
“You know the answer to that.”
“Do I?”
“You’ve been watching,” Dane tossed back, his top lip curled in annoyance.
“Not as stealthy as I thought – I’ll have to work on that.” Giles looked amused, but Dane was anything but.
He knew why the vampire was there – to cover his own backside where the authorities were concerned. It was that simple, and it wasn’t happening. Dane would die to protect her.
“Leave…”
“Still not a very good host…”
“You weren’t invited, and you’re not welcome here.” Dane’s deep warning growl was matched by Roland as the man stalked towards his brother and took up a place beside him.
“Two big bad bears, and where’s the other one?” Giles asked, knowing the answer already.
“Right here,” Bowie growled as he stalked towards his clan, and Dane shot him a glare.
Bowie had followed on Roland’s heels down the mountain. He figured that he owed it to Dane to front up to whatever justice the man wanted to dish out.
Now he was glad he had. He’d willingly give his life in return for Dane’s or the female’s. This was all his doing, and the damn vampire wouldn’t have been sniffing around if it wasn’t for his actions.
“Ah, the screw-up,” Giles grinned at Bowie, and boy, did that make his bear want to burst out from within him.
Bowie held his beast back. He was more than determined that the bear wouldn’t get away from him.
He needed to be there for Dane and the man’s mate, and he was damn well going to do it even if it killed him – which he kind of hoped it did.
“The way I see it; you’ve got twenty-four hours to woo your mate and calm her bear…” Giles noted Rayner who was coming on a slow
walk towards the group.
“Or what?” She demanded, momentarily distracting Dane from the task at hand.
She was headed towards the vampire, and the alpha sidestepped to put his body between them.
“Or I become as unfriendly as your mate,” Giles offered back.
“The hell you threaten my mate,” Dane growled, and it took everything that he had within him to resist the demands of his beast to be unleashed and go bat-shit crazy on the vampire.
“The easy way or the hard way,” Giles offered back with a shrug of his shoulders. He took a few backward steps away from the group before he disappeared.
Dane turned toward Rayner. He reached out a hand and drew her in close. He dipped his head and subtly took in her scent to calm his beast. Otherwise, he might just have taken off after the vampire to try to put an end to it there and then.
“Well, look who showed up for the party,” Roland said as he eyed Bowie with amusement.
“I came to…” Bowie started, but Dane growled long and hard, silencing his brother.
“Don’t give a damn – get out of my sight.” Dane wanted to rip the man’s head off and hand it back to him. He was trying to soothe his damn beast not rile it up some more.
Bowie didn’t need telling twice. He turned on his heels and started for his cabin.
“Wait!” Rayner growled.
She pulled away from Dane’s loose hold, and the man reluctantly let her go. If she had something to say to his brother, then she deserved to get it off her chest.
Bowie ground to a halt and turned back towards her. He couldn’t look her in the eye, not then, not yet, maybe never for the rest of his days. His shame was too great.
Bowie fisted his hands at his sides and mentally growled a warning to his bear. If that beast so much as twitched to be release, Bowie wasn’t going to let it slide.
Rayner stalked up to Bowie, and she could feel Dane following on her heels. The man was protective, annoyingly so, but she felt that rush of anger within her for Bowie, and she knew she needed to get it out or she’d shift again, and she didn’t want to ruin another set of Dane’s clothes.
Rayner didn’t so much as hesitate as she brought up a swift knee into Bowie’s balls and watched with great satisfaction as he froze up on the spot, looking as if his head was about to explode, and then dropped like a sack of potatoes to the ground.
“Ouch…” Roland winced as the sheer white-hot pain registered on Bowie’s face, but still, he chuckled.
“Rayner…” Dane growled, and she turned, flushed red with anger, before blowing her hair from her face, and cocking her head to one side. “Don’t you dare ever do that to me…”
“Again?” Rayner reminded him.
“I know you’re never going to be a shrinking violet…”
“You bet your big furry butt I’m not.” She folded her arms defensively.
Was that what Dane wanted? Because she sure as hell had never been one of those, and she certainly wasn’t going to change for a man – even if he was her mate.
“And that’s a good thing, sweetheart,” Dane assured her with a big old grin that stretched wide and lit up his sexy dark eyes.
Rayner let out a breath that she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.
“But, I’m still the alpha around here…”
“I don’t want your job,” she snorted a chuckle.
“Glad to hear it,” Dane said as Roland chuckled into his hand and he flashed him a glare.
“Can’t speak for my bear though, mainly because I don’t know what the hell it’s saying, but…” she shrugged, and Roland chuckled harder.
“Okay,” Dane couldn’t help but chuckle at that one.
“It’s not funny – you guys need to make a growly dictionary, or … something,” Rayner grumbled, and Dane and Roland chuckled harder.
Bowie grunted, but nobody knew if that was in amusement, or just because his balls had just dropped back down.
“We should get you some food,” Dane said, and she tossed up her shoulders again.
“I could eat.”
“Shocker.” Dane chuckled harder.
“Are you saying I eat too much?” She tossed him a sideways glare, and Dane was smart enough to hold his hands up to his chest in surrender.
“Hell no!” he growled. “I like my balls hanging right where they are,” he muttered.
“Bowie.” Roland looked down at his brother. “We’re trying to clean up the place. Get the hell up, man, you’re making it look untidy.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
~
Rayner was starting to get to understand the beast within her, only starting, she guessed that like a mother of a newborn that didn’t come with a manual either, she was learning as time went by.
Instead of the different cries of a baby, she was learning what her bear wanted when it growled and when it clawed within her.
Right then, after a hearty meal of more juicy steak than any human could ever eat in one sitting, and as she sat in front of the fire watching Dane doing the manly thing of making coffee – not that making coffee was manly in itself, but it was when he did it with all of those sexy muscles working beneath his well-fitted shirt — she got the distinct impression that her beast was just as turned on as she was by their mate.
Over six foot tall of pure muscled sexiness was headed her way with a cup in each hand, his muscles working under his skin, and as she dragged her gaze up to his face — those sexier-than-hell eyes of his were darkening.
There was a low, deep growl that rumbled through the air toward her, and her bear answered that growl.
Dane noted the look of surprise on his mate’s face as she grumbled a growl back at him. He couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Pardon me,” Rayner giggled. It wasn’t exactly a burp or a fart, but it might have amounted to the same thing.
“You go right ahead,” Dane chuckled as he placed the cups on the small table beside her, and for a big man, he still managed to sit a lot more gracefully than she expected.
“My bear…” Rayner started and stopped.
She was a grown ass woman, and yet around him, she still felt as giddy as a schoolgirl. What was wrong with that? Well, for starters; she’d never felt that way in her life before, but there she was – heaving breasts and all.
“Is opinionated,” Dane offered her the out.
It wasn’t that she looked particularly uncomfortable around him, more that she didn’t know how to express what she was feeling – what her bear was feeling.
Hell, he’d been there, and he wasn’t about to make things harder for her. She’d get there – come to him as his mate in her own sweet time.
He couldn’t help hoping that she’d hurry the hell up – but, he was male, and he would have taken her as his mate the moment that he’d discovered who she was to him, to his beast.
“Opinionated and then some,” she chuckled.
“Tell me about your family,” Dane asked and watched a frown settle onto her forehead. Either she’d only just considered them in all of this, or he’d just stepped on some bad memories.
“Apart from my Gran, who died when I was a kid, your family are probably more functional than mine.” She lifted her hand and pretended to knock back the booze.
“Sorry to bring it up.” Dane wasn’t sure what to say to that.
His father had liked to drink, it sort of kept the bear a little more docile, but shifters could handle their booze because of the way their healing blood worked. He couldn’t imagine seeing his father falling down drunk, or boozed up to where he couldn’t function as a parent.
Dane couldn’t imagine his whole world not being centered around his mate and cubs. What more did a man need in life?
“When I have kids things will be different.” Rayner sort of shocked herself with that admission. It wasn’t something she’d ever said out loud before, but she’d thought about it – a lot.
“Glad to hear you want cubs…”
; “Cubs?” Her eyes were wide, and Dane had to bite off a chuckle. “Seriously?”
“They don’t come out covered in fur or anything.” He roared with laughter at the look on her face. “Hell, you look constipated.”
“It’s not funny,” she growled. She lifted her fist and punched him in the bicep.
“You’re face is damn funny.” He was honestly trying not to laugh, but he couldn’t help it, and the more she screwed up her face and muttered under her breath – the heartier his laughter became.
“Jerk,” she growled, taking another swing at him, but that time; he caught her wrist and locked his fingers around it.
“Don’t start a fight you can’t win, sweetheart,” he teased her with his words and an easy smile.
“I dropped you once before…”
“Blindsided me,” he reminded her.
“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” She shrugged, unrepentant in her actions.
“Funny, I was thinking the same thing about me…”
“That you’re a girl?” Her grin didn’t last longer than it took him to yank her forward into his strong arms, caging her in with a deep, hungry growl that went right alongside what he had a mind to do.
Then he did it – brought his lips down on hers – and almost died a happy man when she opened for him and kissed him like she meant it.
Hell, she meant it alright. Her damn body sparked to life like it hadn’t done in years. It had probably been that long since she’d been with anyone, shown intimacy, and where had that gotten her? Brokenhearted when he’d met her screw up parents.
Dane wasn’t like that. He hadn’t judged her for her parents drinking.
Hell, his family had troubles too, and she liked that, liked that he wasn’t perfect, and wasn’t trying to be.
He hadn’t let go of one of her wrists. Instead, he’d wrapped it behind her back as he locked her against his body.
Hell, she liked that too, maybe a little too much because her senses were on overload and she could feel a warmth between her legs – wet heat, just for him.
He kissed like she was a feast. Like he couldn’t get enough of her, and her other hand had a mind of its own as it climbed over the rise of his chest, testing the hard muscles beneath his shirt, and settled on one big, muscled shoulder.