by M. L. Briers
I don’t want to hurt her… not her, maybe him…
Why isn’t she running?
Why is she coming closer?
A mate with a death wish…
“Are you going to kill me, big man?” Chelsea took another step and he flinched.
Then another and he moved his feet in place.
He looked like he wanted to run.
His jet black eyes flicked from her to the exit and back again, so many times that she wondered how he wasn’t dizzy…
“You’ve got to get passed me to get out. What will you do when I step in your path?” Chelsea challenge him. Forced his bear to growl and claw inside of him.
Man and beast wanted nothing more than to protect her from themselves, from each other.
Tyler didn’t trust his bear not to hurt her and his bear didn’t trust Tyler not to do something stupid and damage the female…
Stay back…
Stay away…
I can’t control my bear…
I can’t control myself…
“Scent me…” Chelsea offered the words that hit him hard.
His stomach knotted and his nose twitched at the invitation. The woman was insane. He’d found his mate and she was as nutty as a squirrels dinner.
He snapped a look towards the way out. Connor on one side and his mate on the other. Either one or both could get in his way if he tried to leave, but if he did nothing then she would get too close…
Chelsea estimated that she had five or so more steps until she was standing in front of the behemoth. Five or so steps to change her damn mind and get the hell out of there.
Are you really doing this? She berated herself.
This isn’t smart…
Mate or not, one way or the other… this was insane.
Look at him. He’s unstable…
I like a challenge, but this…?
I can’t tell what he is. My shields are going insane, trapped inside a cave with a vampire and a shifter bear…
What if he is my mate?
I have to know.
Don’t I?
“Please…” Tyler growled. Desperation clung to that one word.
He couldn’t risk hurting her. Not her. Never her.
She didn’t stop. Didn’t stop coming directly at him. It was too late now to sidestep her and make for the exit.
Tyler felt his bear rise up inside of him. He felt his fangs pushing at his gums to elongate… His claws poked further into the flesh of his palms…
He was going to lose it and kill his mate.
~
CHAPTER SIX
~
There wasn’t much that Connor could do now to stop this from happening. The witch was within a step or two of being right up close and personal to the man who looked as if his head was about to explode upon his neck.
Connor held the breath that he didn’t need and waited. His whole body tense. Ready to act at the drop of a hat or the swipe of a set of claws.
Just because he believed that Tyler was harmless towards his mate, didn’t actually make the bear believe it, and a bad mood, petrified bear that was fast losing his mind with fear and loathing was as unpredictable as the wind…
Damn, but he hoped he’d done the right thing…
The witch was awesome. He respected the hell out of her for what she was doing. Anyone else might have taken the opportunity of an insane mate and hightailed it out of there…
This witch had balls of steel, and it looked like she was going to need them now more than ever.
Connor winced as she took that very last step. The step that put her right slap bang in front of the unpredictable bear. And Connor felt every hair on his body rise to attention…
Chelsea moved slowly. Her eyes were locked onto Tyler’s black, pleading ones as she slowly raised her arm, her hand, and she reached out for his chest… inch… by inch… by inch…
Tyler’s hand shot up and he slapped his giant hand around her tiny wrist. Holding it within one bloodied fist. The strength of his hold on her was testing her bones.
Chelsea jumped in place, and caught her breath in her throat. She winced at the pain of his hold and felt it loosen slightly, slack off just enough not to break anything, and yet he still held her there, firmly, like a vice that she had no intention of trying to get out of.
She could feel the buzz that raced up her arm from his touch. Her body responded to it in a way that she’d never felt before.
The excitement within her was for more than just the rush of the moment. More than just being caught within in grasp, unable to move. Trapped. Although she liked the thought of being trapped by him.
Caged by his sheer strength and size. It was a rush, but not as much of a rush as knowing what he was. Who he was.
If he wasn’t her damned mate then she was dreaming this. He might have had his way for the moment. He might have been in charge for now…
But she wasn’t quite done just yet.
“I have two hands…” she said. The corners of her lips twitched into a small smile as his eyes flicked down to her mouth and then right back up to her eyes. A growl of warning rumbled within that broad, muscled chest, but she’d never been one to back down from a fight.
She lifted her other hand and moved it towards him. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw his free hand twitch at his side – his fist unclenched and clenched again, and every muscle in his body seemed to move under the skin in anticipation of what came next.
Chelsea got further this time, almost to his chest before his other hand shot up and he gripped that wrist too, keeping her locked there, as his chest rose and fell like a dying man gasping in the oxygen all around him.
His heart was jackhammering in his chest, pounding against his ribs and throbbing in his temple…
He’d never felt so alive and so close to dropping down dead of a damned heart attack at the same time.
The feel of her skin against his. The warmth. The way he could feel her heart beating in the pulse at her wrists… the sound of her heart matching the speed of his…
“Leave…” he growled once more, but this time his eyes flicked towards Connor.
“Err,” Connor looked towards the witch.
He couldn’t just turn tail and run now. Leave the woman alone to deal with an unpredictable bear that had her trapped…
“Go.” Chelsea could hear the uncertainty in the vampire’s tone. She gave him his due, he seemed reluctant to walk away from her predicament.
She kept her eyes locked with the shifters, not daring to snatch her gaze away to assure the vampire that she was fine with his going.
“I’m going to have the worst case of guilt for a very long time if you hurt her, Tyler…” Connor announced before he turned on his heels and started out of the cave. Biting off a string of curses for what he’d done…
“Tyler.” Chelsea cocked her head to one side and narrowed her eyes on his. “I’m Chelsea.”
With a hard growl he moved. Spinning her around and forcing her back against the wall as his hard body caged her in, pressed against her as he pushed her hand back against the wall, and the gasp of a breath from her lips made his bear roar within him…
“Take my scent…” she bit out as he growled on a constant rumble that rattled through his chest and vibrated against her breasts that were squashed against him…
I warned her to leave. Tyler’s top lip twitched.
I warned her and the vampire…
I can’t be responsible for my actions…
His bear roared within him again. Kicking, clawing and scratching up his insides until he felt as if his whole body would explode into a million pieces…
He leaned his head in. His body ached, felt stiff, tired of being that tightly wound up for so damn long that he couldn’t remember a time when he wasn’t…
He growled at her in a warning not to try anything. Not to move a muscle.
Then he dipped his head towards the heat of the skin at her neck and
he took a deep, long breath in…
Her scent was so pure without the distractions of the outside world around them. Just him and her. Mates.
His bear reared up at the inviting scent. Her warm body. The need to claim her, to mark her…
And Tyler fought like hell to keep that beast at bay…
His cock was as hard as steel and locked between them. It twitched like it had a will of its own.
He wanted her.
He wanted to sink his length deep inside of her.
He wanted to thrust hard and fast against the satin walls of her channel until that friction sent them both to heaven and hell…
Heaven because she belonged with him, she was his and he was hers.
And hell because he couldn’t keep her.
Mine. His beast demanded they claim her.
Tyler closed his eyes and brushed his cheek against hers. Heard the sound of her drawing in a fast, deep breath… and he imagined her doing that from the feel of his cock inside of her body, opening her up to him, claiming every inch of her…
He revelled in the feel of her touch. Like this, just the two of them, here, now, he felt more alive than he’d ever felt before.
His heart ached.
His soul hurt.
He wanted her. He needed her.
But she wasn’t his to have. Not when he could crush her. Lash out with his temper and his claws and kill her in a heartbeat.
“You – have – to – leave – now.” He growled out every word deep, low and hard beside her ear, and he felt the hard shiver that wracked her body.
“No.” her word was a breathless whisper. “I’m your mate.”
Her words sent his bear into a frenzy. The damn animal bucked and clawed to be set free…
“I will kill you.” Tyler growled out.
“Either kill me or claim me, but I’m not going anywhere.”
“I’m dangerous,” Tyler couldn’t understand why this female wasn’t running for her life, why she was baiting him.
“Same as any other shifter,” she offered back.
“No.” Tyler shook his head. “I hurt people.”
“You’re not hurting me.”
Tyler slowly rested his forehead against hers. He closed his eyes and tried to get a hold of his mind and his body. It felt as if he was fighting a losing battle.
“I will. My bear is unpredictable.” It sounded like a promise born of desperation and festered in fear.
“You were controlled by magic. I have magic. I held you down with it and you couldn’t move a muscle.” Chelsea saw his eyes open, felt his hands tightened a little against her wrists before they eased again. “Imagine if I’d spelled you to attack the vampire, could you have broken that spell?”
Tyler couldn’t think. He didn’t want to. Her words sounded good, her body felt better…
He needed to escape her before things went wrong. But she had a hold on him… No, he had the hold on her, he was free to move, free to walk away, and yet every inch of his body wanted to stay right there pressed against hers.
“I’m not gentle-”
“Neither was I when I kicked your ass in the woods.” Chelsea chuckled. It was low and sounded decidedly dirty to his ears. Like sex…
How can a laugh sound like sex?
How can I want her so damn badly that I’d chew off my own damn paws to have her?
“Why did you come here?”
“I heard there were werewolves on the mountain.”
“No, no werewolves, and I meant here, follow me here.” Tyler growled. His bear was settling a little inside of him, but not enough.
“To see if you were my mate.”
“You want a mate?” Tyler wished the answer to that question was yes, but he hoped it was no. He wished that he’d met her a month ago, two months. Just not now…
“I didn’t. I’d never thought about it.” Chelsea admitted. Her body wanted to move. She was still pressed between the wall and him and there was a jagged rock pressed against her spine, but she didn’t want to force him away from her. It felt like he was calming…
“And now you wished you’d never met me.” Tyler pulled his head back and stared her straight in the eye.
“Now that I know I have a mate…” she considered that.
What did she say?
What did she tell him?
How the hell was she supposed to answer a loaded question like that?
~
CHAPTER SEVEN
~
The truth.
The whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Start as you mean to go on – with honestly. Pure and simple and don’t hold anything back.
That’s what life was supposed to be like when you met the one, wasn’t it? Starting a relationship on a lie and continuing on that course of action could only lead to the truth coming out later down the line and screwing everything up.
What was a relationship when it was built on the foundations of a lie?
What was a relationship when it was forged in secrets?
Her life had never been an open book. She’d run from one lie to another trying to make believe that she was what her foster carers wanted…
It had never lasted. Her true colours had shone to the surface like a rainbow bursting through the sky after a downpour on a sunny day.
Tell him.
Hide yourself.
Tell him because he is the one. He’s your mate and you can’t hide form him forever. It would be too exhausting. Too scary to worry about lies being uncovered and the truth raising its ugly head.
Tell him.
Lie.
Tell him.
Make believe – the world is simpler when you create it for yourself.
Tell him.
Chelsea swallowed down the large ball of fear within her. To show a person who you really are took courage. Living a lie was the easy part in comparison.
I like football.
I love it when you leave your crusty underpants and stinky socks all over the floor for me to pick up.
Please, fart again just as I’m about to spoon something into my mouth.
No, dive into the toilet and crap just before you know I’m going for a shower… the smell doesn’t bother me.
Tell him the truth.
Share yourself.
“Now that I know I have a mate I’m not going to walk away from the only family that I have ever known.”
Chelsea had said it in one breath. One shaky, scary, breathless breath that threw up a whole lot of emotions within her. Emotions that she knew she’d never really dealt with no matter how accomplished she had become in the rest of her life to date.
They were the feelings and the fears that she had buried deep within the confines of those large, normally impenetrable walls around her heart, around her soul, and she had thought that it would have taken a jackhammer to break through those defences.
Crap. Look at the horror on his face.
Look at the damn pain in his eyes…
Sympathy… you fool.
It’s pity.
I don’t want this.
I don’t want sympathy – pity.
“You’re right. I shouldn’t have followed you.” She started to struggle against his hands on her wrists. Tried to push his body away from hers as she bucked out from the wall, managing to rock him back on his heels before his weight forced her back against the wall once more.
That jagged rock hit her spine and she gasped with the pain, flinched with raw nerves within her…
“Stop, you’re hurting…” Tyler growled, giving up trying to talk her into submission when the damn woman wasn’t listening.
“Damn rock, damn idiot…” she bit out, still struggling to gain her freedom. She didn’t want to look at him. Didn’t want to see pity in his eyes.
Tyler yanked her body to his as he took a step back. His strong arms came around her, and he turned and lifted her from the floor in one quick movement. Stalking the few feet
towards his makeshift bear bed, he took her down to the softness of the mattress that he’d weaved from what Mother Nature had to offer him.
Her body had been hurting, but he’d felt her sadness. Heartbreak like he’d never felt before, except when one of his mother’s clan had died and his female was left alone…
She grieved for something. Mourned a loss.
“Stop fighting me,” Tyler growled. His body was pressing hers down into the bed. His hands had found her wrists again and he held her in place beneath him. He wanted her to calm… he wanted to sooth her, but he didn’t know how.
“Then let me go,” she snapped back, still not daring to look at him. “You wanted me away. You wanted me out of here. Now you have your damned wish.” She hissed and bucked, trying to free herself.
Tyler didn’t want to hurt her, but he didn’t want to release her while she was like this either.
“Stop,” he leaned in and whispered beside her ear.
“Screw you, you don’t want me as a mate and I don’t want to be here now…” she hissed and squirmed, bucked and tried to push up…
Tyler brushed his cheek against hers, but it didn’t help. She was only getting more out of control. Madder by the moment.
He bit down into the fabric that gathered at her neck and yanked his head fast, tearing through the cloth until his eyes locked with the sight of the smooth, soft skin of her shoulder. The thought of marking her that tore through his mind and his beast roared within him…
Tyler fought against his bear with everything that he had. His mate needed him to be strong. To be her man. Her rock. Her center.
He closed his jaws over her shoulder and with blunt teeth, he bit down against her skin, praying to whatever spirits were listening that he would have the strength not to get his fangs out…
His bear pushed hard. He pushed back harder.
If he bit her now. If he marked her as his and set his claim on her body – then there was no way in hell that he’d be able to control himself enough not to take her.
~
CHAPTER EIGHT