by Dani Wyatt
My shots ring out as ten eyes dart my way, but Orwell’s go dark as he crumples to the ground.
For a second, the world is silent, then it’s Ragnar that roars, tearing forward on all fours before D can get off another shot, grabbing him by the leg and bashing him into the ground. I hear the snapping of bones and then the sound of an approaching siren, just as Ragnar’s grizzly drops the body onto the lawn and turns to rear up on his hind legs, looking at me as I drop the gun and start to run.
I run until I feel the blood soaked fur against my face.
Praying everything I’ve heard about shifter healing is true.
Because I can’t lose my mate. He’s my everything.
Chapter 12
Ragnar
Wayne, English, Howard and I all phase back to human form after it’s all over, panting and on all fours, trying to re-group. Wynter ran back inside the house, and I tried to tell her to stay, but through the pain, along with the exhaustion and my body’s effort to heal itself, all I could do was growl.
There’s red and blue lights flashing for a minute, along with a siren, but to my surprise they stop and the sheriff is there, looking around at the carnage. There’s the two humans out here, sure, but also each of us shifters have gunshot wounds.
“God.” I hear her voice a few minutes later as Wynter runs towards us, carrying sheets and blankets, handing them off to each of us, checking our wounds as she goes before finally kneeling down next to me as I watch the sheriff head straight for Howard.
He’s the oldest of the group, and in shifter terms that makes him the most respected. The sheriff grabs his radio, making a call as I watch Wayne and English wrap their butt-naked selves in blankets and kneel down next to Howard.
“Fuck,” I manage, the searing pain from the gunshot wounds making me dizzy, but all I can think about it how in the chaos, my paw connected with her… “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so fucking sorry…”
I pull her to me. Even in my exhaustion her well-being is all I care about. I look at her shirt, at the claw-torn fabric, and all the blood, and I want to die. I’ve hurt her.
It’s all happening again. I can’t keep her safe. Not from me.
It’s history, bad history repeating itself…the world starts to spin and go dark, but Wynter’s hands are on my face and her eyes are pleading.
“I’m okay. I should have known better than to throw myself in front of a grizzly bear intent on killing his mate’s kidnappers. Seems I have a few safety protocols to learn when it comes to shifters.” Her smile brings me back, but I’m not sure I can ever forgive myself.
“Hey.” It’s the sheriff, looking down at all of us, then over at the bodies. “We’ve got a bit of a mess here, boys. And ma’am,” he adds, nodding respectfully at Wynter.
“I’ll take responsibility. They kidnapped Wynter, it was all self-defense but I know someone has to go in for it. The story will be my grizzly did the damage.”
“And your grizzly was able to pull the trigger on the 9mm, huh, Rag?”
“Yes. That was me.” I sit up and the sheriff shakes his head.
“Here’s how things are going to go. I’m going to get back in my car there.” He nods toward his cruiser. “I’m going to go home, drink some shitty coffee and watch Dancing with the Stars. I’ve got a few episodes recorded, so I doubt I’m going to get out here again tonight, if you catch my meaning. Tomorrow morning, you all better be acting like this was all just a bad dream. I’ll take care of Robert, he’s the one that called me. He’s a good guy, he knows this town. Clean this mess up. All of it.” He nods toward the rusty Ford Bronco with the Kentucky license plate in front of his cruiser in the driveway, then turns on his heel, gets into his car and drives away, leaving us all sitting there staring at each other.
Howard is on his feet, a blanket around his waist. “Your grandmother is going to kill me.” He shakes his head but the single gunshot wound he took to his leg is already nearly healed.
“How did you guys know to come?” I look at each of them and Wayne answers.
“We were all at Josephine’s. Howard was picking up takeout for Myra and we were having a beer. That realtor stumbled in, looking rough. He said you and Wynter might be in trouble. From there, we headed this way.”
“Thanks.” I look at them wondering if they hadn’t showed, how thing would have turned out.
Wayne pipes up, nodding toward English. “We’ll clean up the garbage. Get Howard home.” He looks back at the house, then turns to Wynter. “Anything valuable in there, you might want to take it with you.”
“Why?” She looks around at the three of us, not understanding what’s about to happen.
“Come on.” I stand, reaching down to take her hand. “Anything inside the house you would miss if you never got to see it again?”
There’s confusion on her face, but instead of questioning, she nods. “Just one duffel bag. It’s in the big freezer in the basement…” She turns to head to the door but I pull her back, remembering what I did to the douche bag I left on the floor.
“I’ll get it. Stay here.”
Wynter
Ragnar paces outside on his front porch as I twist the towel back up on my hair and curl my legs under me, sitting on the sofa in his great room with a blazing fire going.
He’s been out there for a while. Taking calls, making calls... the lump in my throat begins to grow as I wonder whether we’ll both find ourselves on trial for at least some sort of crime before this is all over.
After all, three dead bodies have to draw some attention.
He comes through the door, his eyes tired, but he’s still as magnificent and sexy as ever shirtless wearing low slung jeans with nothing underneath and there’s a flutter of butterfly wings in my belly.
His wounds have almost healed already. There’s just light pink pulled flesh in the spots where the bullets entered. When I asked him earlier if we needed the hospital, at least to remove the bullets, he said no. I don’t understand everything about shifter healing yet, but for the moment, I don’t need to know all the secrets of this strange new life I’m living.
I just need to trust that Ragnar knows what he’s doing.
“And?” I query when he comes back inside after the phone calls.
“Well, if anyone comes looking, those three all had multiple warrants out, so they were probably trying to find a hideout up the mountain, when unfortunately they lost a fight with a grizzly.” He shrugs, coming to sit down on the sofa, reaching over to pull me onto his lap, facing him, my bare pussy against his already half-hard cock under the rough fabric of his Levis.
“That’s too bad. But…” I halt, anxiety still twisting in my gut over my contribution to the whole ‘no longer breathing’ situation. “If someone finds the bodies, one will have a gunshot wound. That’s not from a bear.”
“Listen.” Ragnar takes my face in his hands. “It’s taken care of. The boys made sure Orwell’s body would have no bullet hole, no bullet. Grizzlies do a lot of damage. Without going into details, let’s just say there’s not enough left of those guys for anyone to know otherwise. Your job right now is to trust me. Okay? From now on, we tell each other everything. Good, bad, ugly, dirty, happy, sad…that’s the rule. You feel it, think it, question it…I want to know. And that includes anything else about being on the run from arms deals and duffel bags full of money that they may or may not be coming to find.”
I nod as he slides one hand up my back the the towel off letting it fall to the floor then his fingers tangle in my hair, and when he tugs on it, the anxiety and worry immediately evaporate as I let out a long sigh.
“And, just so you know, there was a little electrical fire at your house.”
I jerk my head back, looking into Ragnar’s dark eyes. “My house?”
“It’s okay. Fire department got there in time to save the structure. The interior, especially the living room, will definitely need redecorating.” He rocks his head back and forth, then finishes. “Mo
re like re-building.”
I narrow my eyes as his other hand drops to my hip and he holds me from top to bottom.
“I have another question. Since we are being honest. Why did you push me away for the first month after we saw each other? If you knew we were mates, why did you keep running away every time you saw me?”
“I was scared.” His voice is thick, and I wait for him to tell me more, because I know there is more. “See, my father killed my mother.”
“Oh, God.” My hands fly to cover my mouth. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah, me too. They were great parents. Great mates as well. Like you, my mother wasn’t a shifter, but she grew up in the Badlands, so she and my father knew they were mates from when they were young. But, my dad had a temper. Got in too many fights for his own good. Mom was the only one that could calm him in those moments. He was jealous as fuck too.”
“Like you.” I smile and he nods, the tension in his brow easing a bit as I run a hand through his damp hair.
“Shouldn’t have happened. Mom was at Josephine’s, it was called something else back then but that doesn’t’ matter, waiting for my dad to meet her for lunch. She got up to use the lady’s room, and there was a table of asshole lion shifters from the other side of the mountain that had been in there drinking. One of them grabbed my mom’s wrist as she went by, then when she jerked her arm back, he smacked her on the ass and took a good handful to top it off.”
“That wasn’t smart.”
“No. Bad timing too, because my dad had just walked in the door of the bar and saw what happened. It was three against one, but the odds never deterred my father when he saw red. It happened so fast. He was rage-blind in a second, seeing someone treat his mate like that. They all shifted, including my father, and it was chaos. Claws and teeth. They jumped on him and he threw one across the bar so hard he impaled him on a mounted deer’s antlers hanging on the wall.”
Ragnar pauses, his eyes drop, and he takes a long breath. Then he lifts his eyes to look at the fireplace mantel where there are framed photos of him, his gran, his parents and other people I don’t know.
“Anyway.” He smacks his tongue against his front teeth. “Mom jumped in the middle, trying to break it up, trying to calm him before he killed them all. He didn’t see her, she caught a swipe of his paw across her mid-section. Tore her open. She lost too much blood. He left the hospital and disappeared.” Ragnar is silent for a moment, then finishes. “He’d gone over the mountain to finish things with the lions, only when he got there, it wasn’t just the two lion shifters that he found. It was their whole family. Sixteen in all. Even shifter healing couldn’t save him and even if it could, I’m not sure that’s what he wanted. I know he loved me, but living without my mother…” He releases a long, hard breath. “Anyway.”
“Is this what Josephine wanted you to tell me? I heard her say that you needed to tell me something…”
“Yeah. And...” His voice hardens, and he brings a hand up to grip my face, forcing my eyes to his, his warm breath on my lips as his eyes narrow. “Do not ever jump into a fight between shifters again. Got it? I’m all in with you, with us. But if anything happened to you.” He grits his teeth, his jaw popping. “Let’s just not let history repeat itself, okay? I’m scared as fuck to lose you, Wynter. But I’m here. I’m pushing through the fear because you are worth it. We are worth it.”
“And I’m here too.” I rub my hips down on him, but to my surprise he simply groans without taking things any farther. “Something wrong?”
Usually all I have to do is think a sexy thought and he’s got me breathless from twelve orgasms—and I’m either full of, or covered with, his cum.
“No.” He clears his throat as I hear the sound of a car coming up the gravel drive. “Just... just stay here, okay? Do as you’re told.” He points a finger at my nose, half kidding, but half serious, so I give him a quick salute as he picks me up and sets me on the sofa next to him, then he’s on his feet heading out the door.
The suspense is killing me, especially since I sort of killed a guy earlier today and Ragnar killed the other two, and that could mean a visit from some law enforcement. I work my way to the front door and push up on my tiptoes to look through the little window outside.
When I see who Ragnar is talking to, worry tightens my throat.
Robert.
He’s human and he’s the one that called the sheriff. He tried to help me when he came to the shop, but maybe he’s here for some blackmail thing, or—
I hop back to the couch as Ragnar turns back to come in the front door and I hear a car pulling back down the driveway.
I sit cross-legged on my hands, trying to look innocent, but when Ragnar comes through the door, looks at me and growls, I look down and see the big t-shirt I’m wearing up around my hips, exposing my bare pussy.
“You likey?” I tease, biting my lip, but Ragnar is serious, marching in front of me and crouching down.
“Look. I never wanted to find my mate. But we don’t always get what we want. So, here’s the deal. You’re mine. I’ve marked you, fucked you, filled your belly with my cum, killed for you…”
“Made me waffles, fixed my water heater…” I add, but he only squints an eye and my attempts at humor are falling flat.
“You’re going to marry me, Wynter. I love you.” His hands come up, one holding a red leather box while the other one flips it open. At first, the box looks so tiny in his huge hands, but when I see what’s inside…
It’s huge.
“Jesus.” It’s all I can think to say as I stare at the dime-sized diamond solitaire, with a triangle of smaller diamonds on each side. “I’m going to need a security team with me at all times if I’m walking around with that monster on my finger.”
“You have one already. I’m your security team,” he grunts.
“True.” I nod, crinkling up my nose on a smile. “Okay, so are you asking me to marry you then?”
He shakes his head and I twist my lips, arching a brow his way.
“So, you’re not asking me to marry you.”
“No. I’m telling you, you are marrying me. Telling. Not asking.”
“Oh.” I look up at the ceiling and shrug. “Okay. Put a ring on it then, Daddy!”
His eyes snap wide.
“What did you call me?”
“Uh, it just sort of slipped out. Daddy? Daddybear?” I purse my lips, blinking twice, waiting to see if I just ruined the moment.
A rumble comes from his chest as he takes the ring out and shoves it on my finger, then he reaches up and tears the t-shirt I’m wearing down the middle.
When I look at his hands, his fingernails are pointed, half-claws already, and I see the change in his eyes. His shoulders broaden and his jaw starts to crack before he gets his grizzly under control and stands up, freeing himself from his jeans, letting his erection stand tall.
And what an erection it is. Magnificent, with those thick, winding, bluish veins, and a head that still makes me wince every time he pushes it inside me.
He brings a hand down on top of my head, arching my neck back just a little as his voice booms down from above, like a God intoning a commandment to a disciple.
“Mouth. Cock. Now.”
He stands in front of where I’m sitting, pulling me forward and guiding the tip of his gigantic hard-on to my lips.
He stuffs it down into my throat, taking my breath away, but when I look up and see him gazing down at me with such lust and intensity, I’m immediately soaking wet.
I suck and lick until my eyes are watering and Ragnar gets that special look on his face that tells me he’s close.
It’s a look somewhere between homicidal rage and uncontrolled lust, with a little love as the cherry on top.
And on the topic of cherries, I couldn’t be happier that I saved mine for him.
And he saved his for me.
Pop, pop.
Some things are just meant to be.
Chapter 13<
br />
Ragnar
Eleven months later
I’m the happiest, angriest man in the world as I watch the nurse wheel Wynter off the elevator, heading toward the glass doors at the front of the hospital where I’ve parked the brand new Suburban I picked up from the dealer this morning.
In each hand, I’m carrying an infant car seat, and anyone that even looks toward my mate and my babies is getting a curled-lip growl from me.
Wynter looks more beautiful than ever before, if that’s possible. Every day I’m with her, she’s more perfect. But today, she’s radiant. Her warm brown hair is twirled up in a messy bun, her tits—which were incredible before—are gigantic and making my mouth water, knowing they are full of sweet milk.
She was stunning as her body changed and the babies grew inside her. She was physically uncomfortable toward the end, and I did everything I could to make her feel better or just distract her.
Orgasms did both, which I was only more than happy to provide.
I’m dead-eyeing everyone as we walk, and inside me my grizzly is egging me on, which is not helping.
“Hey…” Wynter reaches out and grazes her fingertips down my forearm. “Relax, they aren’t here to eat your cubs.”
“They might be,” I grumble back, listening to my inner bear roar, backing me up.
It’s been almost a year since I saw my mate for the first time, and my life is about as perfect as it can be.
The twins were born two days ago. Wynter gave birth like a mamma bear, swearing and cussing me out for damn near ten hours, but I’ll take all that and more for our family.
I take each tiny car seat and snap them into the bases I spent three hours working on this morning, making sure they were secure. But now that I see the girls sleeping, so trusting, I take another few minutes to check them again, listening to Wynter giggle behind me in the wheelchair.
“He’s very protective,” the nurse remarks, and I turn to give him a scowl but he just smiles back. Why they had to give my wife a damn male nurse today is beyond me.