He loosed a long sigh as he relaxed. “You need to know what you’re getting into if you’re going to stay.”
“I’m going to stay.” She put that out there before her nerve failed her and glanced up at his face.
“I know. For now.” He went to look away from her.
“Not for now.” She rushed that confession out before he could say anything and his gaze locked with hers, his eyes widening.
“Not for now?”
She shook her head.
“I will understand if you want to leave. I won’t try to make you stay.” He had that defeated look again.
Cameo didn’t like it. It wasn’t like him. The man she knew was gentle, but a warrior too.
“You’re not going to fight for me?” She canted her head, her fingers pausing at her work, pressing softly to his damp skin just above his waist. “If I walked out that door right now, you’d just let me go?”
A flicker of something in his eyes told her that he didn’t want that. He didn’t want her to leave him. She didn’t want him to let her go.
She felt bad provoking him, pushing him, but she wanted to know how he felt about her. She wanted to know that he wanted her here, needed her with him as badly as she needed to be with him.
A war erupted in his blue eyes and she watched it unfold, could almost hear his thoughts as he went back and forth about what he would do.
An ache started in her heart, born of a whisper that drifted through her mind, too quiet for her to hear but it stirred a feeling in her, and she was sure that once it grew loud enough it would devastate her.
Lowe vanquished it before it could fully form.
He clutched her hand and stared deep into her eyes. “I’d fight. I can’t let you go. I meant that. Gods, I mean it. I would do whatever it took to keep you by my side because I’m crazy about you… I know this is fast… but… I love you, Cameo, and that means that if you wanted to leave—”
She silenced him with a soft kiss, unable to bear seeing him in pain, seeing him torn between doing anything to keep her with him because he loved her and doing nothing to hurt her.
Because he loved her.
Her noble bear.
The thought that he would let her leave because he loved her, that he would break his own heart, made hers ache for him. Made her love him all the more. If that was possible. She wasn’t sure it was.
He clutched her nape and kissed her, keeping it gentle and tender, filled with love that warmed her to her soul.
Lowe pulled back before she was ready, and she worried it was because his injuries were hurting him when she looked into his eyes and saw the pain that shone in them.
“Are they hurting?” She lowered her hand to his hip, checked it over and then tried to see the other side of the wound. “Are you sure you don’t need me to get Yasmin?”
He shook his head, his blond eyebrows slowly furrowing as he stared at her face.
She gently pressed her hand to his side and he shuffled forwards a few inches, so she could see the exit wound. She carefully cleaned and inspected it, covered it with a dressing and then eased him back again. She looked at the bullet hole in his stomach and swallowed hard. What if either of the bullets had hit something vital? She could dress them, but if the one that had penetrated his side had nicked an organ or his intestines, he might get sick. Terribly sick.
Just the thought of that happening was enough to have her worried, feeling frantic with a need to make sure it wasn’t the case.
She looked at him. “You said you could call an air ambulance.”
He shook his head and frowned at her. “No hospitals. I’ll be fine, Cameo, shifters don’t get sick like humans… but if it will set your mind at ease, I’ll get Yasmin to look at the wounds.”
“Is she a cougar shifter too?”
Another shake. “She’s a goddess.”
Cameo stared at him, her mind blanking as she tried to process that. There weren’t just shifter breeds in this world with the humans. There were goddesses too. Which meant there were gods. And what else was living undetected among humans?
Not quite undetected.
“You mentioned hunters.” She frowned into his eyes. “Are they the reason you won’t go to a hospital?”
He nodded and swallowed hard. “I can’t risk exposing my pride to them. We have to be careful about everything we do. There’s an organisation out there that does terrible things to people like us. Experiments. Torture. Raids that often end with most of a pride dead.”
“That’s awful.” She wouldn’t mention hospitals again or anything to do with humans. She stilled. “Lowe… I’m human. The way that man looked at me… He doesn’t want me here. He thinks I’m a threat or a liability.”
“Maverick can go fuck himself,” Lowe snarled and reached for her, slid his hand around her nape and gripped it gently as his eyes darted between hers, softening again. “You’re staying. He understands that. He knows the reason I need you here.”
“Because you love me?” She wanted to hear him admit that again.
He sighed. “Because I love you, and—”
“And?” She shuffled a little closer to him when he looked as if he didn’t want to continue. She was damned if he was going to leave her hanging, leave her wondering what he had been going to say, especially when he looked so torn. So afraid. She raised her hands and gently framed his face. “Tell me, Lowe. Whatever it is, it can’t make this whole thing any crazier.”
He looked as if he doubted that.
Dropped his gaze to his knees and heaved another sigh, and she frowned as she felt sure he was nervous. He wasn’t shaking and he wasn’t looking at her. Nothing about him betrayed his nerves. How was it she could feel these things about him? It was like a sixth sense.
“There’s a reason…” He sucked down another breath and exhaled hard as his eyes darted up to lock with hers. “There’s a reason I felt compelled to find you the night you were attacked in the woods. When I scented your blood… I didn’t realise it at the time, but as I fell for you, as we grew closer, it hit me. We’re fated.”
“Fated?” She lost herself in the calm blue of his eyes.
A warm blue.
There was so much affection in his gaze as he looked at her, mixed with a dash of hope and a hefty dose of fear. Because he was afraid that what he needed to tell her would scare her off?
It wasn’t going to happen.
He nodded. “Shifters… We have fated mates. A true mate. Someone we feel was made for us and we can share a powerful bond with them.”
A bond.
Something suddenly made sense.
Over the days she had spent with Lowe, she had begun to feel as if what they shared was special, a once in a lifetime kind of love and a deep and powerful connection. Things between them had felt intense, as if someone had turned the volume up to eleven on everything he made her feel.
Because she was his fated mate.
“You look… shocked.” He grimaced. “I’m rushing this and not doing a good job.”
She shook her head. “I’m not shocked. In fact, a lot of things just clicked into place and made sense. From the moment we met, I felt drawn to you. Something about you made me… wild… a little reckless. I felt—This is going to sound crazy. I feel incredibly protective of you and, well, I can’t seem to get enough of you.”
A stunned look crossed his face.
“You feel it too? I mean, I wasn’t sure you would. You’re human… Not like I know much about how a human should feel in this situation, but I figured… Well, it doesn’t really matter what I figured now, does it?” A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. “You think this potential bond makes you reckless and wild, you should see it from my side. I’m insanely possessive of you, want to lash out at any male who so much as looks at you, and I really can’t get enough of you. Hell, right now, I just want to gather you into my arms and spend the rest of the day kissing you.”
She smiled at him. He was rambling, but it was go
od to see him relaxing. It made her relax too, made everything feel normal again, back to how it had been before she had discovered that he was a bear shifter. She still had so many questions to ask him about that, was sure she was going to spend the next few weeks, if not months, suddenly thinking of something else she wanted to know about his kind.
But right now, she wanted to know one thing.
“You keep mentioning a bond. What does that mean?”
His face lost all warmth, his skin paling as his smile faltered. He ran a hand over his hair, mussing the golden threads of it, and grimaced.
“Cameo… we’re fated and that means…” He huffed, sank back against the couch and then sat up again, agitated now.
She placed her hand on his knee, wanting to show him that he could tell her. It wasn’t going to change how she felt about him. She wasn’t going to run.
His eyes locked with hers. “I’m driven to mate with you.”
“Like sex?” She shrugged at that thought, because she wasn’t going to turn down sex with Lowe. It was hardly a chore. In fact, there was a part of her—a wicked part—that wanted him right now. The sensible part overruled it, pointing out that he was injured. Wicked part just pointed out that she could be on top.
“More than sex. When we…” A blush climbed his cheeks. “I have a powerful urge to bite your nape, and if I do, it’ll trigger a need in you to do the same. But you don’t have to bite me.” He rushed those words out, his eyes widening as he shook his head. “Only I have to bite you and that… that will bind us as mates.”
Oh.
Her eyebrows rose as she let that sink in, and he wasn’t the only one blushing when she remembered how she had clawed at his nape when they had made love, unable to deny the wicked need to mark him there. At the time, she had put it down to a heat of the moment thing. Now, she had the feeling she had wanted to mark him. She had wanted to trigger this bond she hadn’t even known about.
Just thinking about him sinking his teeth into her nape had heat curling through her, something that surprised her. The thought of someone biting her should scare her, even disturb her, but it didn’t. She felt hazy from head to toe, felt an overwhelming need to kiss him and seduce him.
Cameo tamped it down.
The heat that shone in Lowe’s eyes said he had noticed her reaction though, and when he looked at her like that, she found it hard to resist the wicked needs rolling through her.
She cleared her throat and focused on what he had said, because she had seen a few horror movies in her time, and her sensible side was screaming a question at her.
“If you bite me… will you make me a bear too?”
He was quick to shake his head. “No. I can’t. We’re born like this, not made. Biting you won’t turn you into a shifter, but it will change you. Your life will be tied to mine. You’ll be stronger. You won’t age. Won’t get sick. Your senses will be sharper. You’ll probably be faster too, and you’ll heal quickly. You’ll live as long as I do. We could have centuries together.”
“That’s quite the list of perks,” she muttered and smiled as she couldn’t hold back the words, needed to lighten the atmosphere a little because it was all beginning to feel terribly real. “Here I was thinking that amazing body and incredible smile were all you had to offer.”
The right corner of his mouth quirked at that, causing a dimple in his cheek.
“You said that with a smile, so I’ll let you off.” He sobered, his eyes gaining a serious edge again. “This is a big decision. I know that. Even though it kills me because I want you to be my mate right this second… You have all the time in the world to make your decision. If you want to be my mate one day, you only have to say the word.”
She appreciated that he wasn’t going to rush her, because he was right. It was a lot to take in and she needed to take things slowly, wanted this thing she had with Lowe to deepen and grow stronger before she took the next step, and wanted him to answer around three million questions. Even though her instincts were pushing her to mate with him, she was determined to take her time and learn all there was to know about his kind and his world, and once she had all the facts and felt she was ready, she would take the leap.
Cameo nodded and leaned towards him, kissed him softly and slowly, savouring the way he sighed as her lips danced across his, as if he was in heaven. She knew she was.
She drew back and stroked his bare chest as she looked deep into his eyes. “One day.”
He smiled and she knew he had seen the promise in her eyes, one that came from her heart. She wouldn’t keep him waiting long. She wasn’t sure she could.
The sensible side of her lined up the first one hundred questions for him.
The wicked part of her shut it down.
She would start filling a mental binder with all the answers she needed tomorrow.
She leaned into him and kissed him again, gasped into his mouth as he slid his left arm around her waist and tugged her against him, pressing her chest to his. There was so much love in his kiss that she warmed down to her marrow, her heart growing lighter as she lost herself in it and in him, and in thoughts of the future she knew deep in her soul she wanted with him.
As his mate.
One day, she would bravely step into a wild new world to be with the man she loved with all her heart. It might be years. He kissed her deeper, igniting heat in her veins that burned that thought away. It might be months. She moaned and shivered as he drew her closer, his arm flexing against her back. Maybe weeks. Weeks at a minimum.
It might be weeks, but one day she would take the leap and become his mate. For him. For her. For them.
Forever.
One day.
Soon.
Possibly tomorrow.
The End
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The Black Ridge Bears series will return in August with Saved by her Bear. Pre-order your copy from http://www.felicityheaton.com/black-ridge-bears-shifter-romance-series.php
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Read on for a preview of the next story in the highly addictive Black Ridge Bears shifter romance series, Saved by her Bear
Saved by her Bear - Preview
Knox moved swiftly through the valley, following the edge of the mountain south, remaining far away enough from Black Ridge and Cougar Creek that he wouldn’t draw the people he was hunting there. He wasn’t sure whether they had made it to the valley yet, wasn’t sure if they were still on their way here, but he was sure of something.
Wherever they were, he was going to intercept them and deal with them.
He sprinted through the dense pines, moving as silently as he could manage, not wanting to make his targets aware of him. Stealth was key until he knew what he was dealing with. Moving quietly wasn’t an easy feat for him though. At six-five and a good three hundred pounds of muscle, every damned stride he landed felt as if it was shaking the earth and alerting the occupants of the wintry forest to his presence.
For once, being a bear shifter was a bad thing.
He wasn’t fleet-footed like the cougar shifters at the Creek, moved with about as much grace as his animal counterparts, thundering across the uneven snowy terrain.
His senses scoured the route ahead of him, seeking signs of life that weren’t animal. If he detected anything, he would slow to a crawl, would slip through the undergrowth with stealth. Right now, he just wanted to get as far from the Ridge and his twin brother as possible, ensuring that the people who were af
ter Cameo, Lowe’s female, didn’t find her.
Gods, he was going to have to thank Cameo for shooting the human male, stopping him from firing at either Lowe or himself. He knew how much courage it had taken her to do such a thing, had seen how shaken she was by the fact she had killed a man. Lowe would take care of her. He would convince her she had done the right thing and it had been that man or them.
He was also sure Lowe would be able to convince the female not to leave Black Ridge. As little as Knox liked the thought of settling down with one female, he could see his brother was in love with her and needed her by his side.
As his mate.
His thoughts strayed to a pretty bartender and a night two years ago.
Knox growled as his right boot snagged on a root and he stumbled forwards, arms flailing, barely keeping his balance as he fought to find his stride again. He didn’t want to settle down. It was the bachelor life for him.
He almost tripped again, huffed and slowed his pace just a notch, because apparently thinking and running was too complicated for him. He jogged past Cougar Creek, checking the occupants with his senses, detecting only shifters and the humans he knew as Ivy and Gabi. No trace of intruders.
Saint, his alpha, would send word to the cougars about their visitors once Lowe returned to the Ridge, warning them to be on their guard.
Knox paused by a tree and pressed his left hand against it, closed his eyes and scented the cold air. It burned his lungs, the chill of it swift to sap the heat from his skin now he had stopped.
He glanced in the direction of the Creek, thinking about the other night when Saint had dragged him to a damned wedding celebration just so he could see the pretty little cougar female, Holly. A female who was now Saint’s mate.
His thoughts strayed to what he had said to his alpha.
That he didn’t want to be next.
Saint had found his fated female. Lowe had found his.
It wasn’t the life for Knox. He liked things simple. No strings attached. No weight around his neck.
Rescued by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 2) Page 17