Bear Guards: A Paranormal Romance

by J. S. Striker

  She kept muttering. Her fingers slowly slid up to his arms, then his shoulders, before sliding down his chest and his stomach. Adam’s eyes widened, but she still had her eyes closed in concentration. He fought the jolt as it slid inside his body, trying to be as professional as she was.

  Her fingers slid up again to his throat, then to his ears, tickling him slightly. They slid up to his head, slipping through his hair and making him almost groan out loud at the sensation. The relaxation he felt earlier popped like a balloon, to be replaced by a different emotion that revved him up and had him standing at attention.

  Literally.

  Adam tried to shift his legs to keep it hidden, but her one hand left his hair and slapped his wrist lightly.

  “Shh. I’m concentrating.”

  If that wasn’t the hottest thing he’d heard this week. Damn. He was crazy.

  Adam bit back the curse and tried to take deep, steady breaths as her fingers kept moving. Her mutters increased, and so did her magic, filling him up until he was wired. Desire flared in his system, hotter than hell, and he found his gaze devouring the sight of her up. There was nothing special about the way she was dressed in her clingy dress that tapered down her knees—so really, he couldn’t see anything.

  Except bare shoulders, and thin, stringy straps that he wanted to pull down so he could worship those spectacular breasts.

  A creamy neck that he wanted to ravish until she moaned out his name.

  The attraction for her sparked like a light and hit him like a truck, and he inwardly staggered at the intensity of it. Her breath heaved because of her magic, and his own breath heaved because he was too randy for his own good. Adam fisted his hands beside him, trying not to turn his hands into claws and gnaw it at the wooden floor in frustration.

  Her hand went to his waist, and he gritted his teeth to avoid moving. Tingles slid down his thighs, and he realized a groan was about to come out of his mouth.

  “Fascinating,” she said. “You have so much stored energy.”

  “If you keep that up, it will all be unleashed.”

  Her eyes opened in confusion—then, in surprise when they clashed with his. A soft gasp came out of her lips, one that had his attention straying there.

  Soft. Pink.

  She shot up like lightning, taking a few steps back. “I think we’ve had enough session for tonight,” she blurted out.

  But those hazel eyes flared, and Adam found himself standing up and slowly following her. Knowledge shone in her expression, and he knew she knew—knew that they both would not be able to make it if he so much as touched any part of her skin right now.

  “Stop backing away,” he said softly.

  “It’s just the magic,” she muttered. “The magic is making you feel that way.” She looked down at his erection inside his pants, then back up, shaking her head.

  “I don’t think so.”

  “It’s the magic! I don’t feel anything for you.”

  Liar.

  She wanted him. She wanted him with every bone in her body, and the desire was so thick in the air, it was practically visible. But she refused to sleep with him because of some hang-up in the past, and she thought he would make a fool out of her.

  He took a huge step forward, hand reaching out to touch her, mouth open to tell her he would never, ever hurt her.

  A crash outside had their heads whipping in that direction—and it had whatever tension was between them snap as he lost her attention. Hazel hurried to the kitchen window to look at the back, where more crawling shadows could be seen. Her eyes widened.

  “Oh, hell no.”

  Concern fell through and had Adam forgetting all about their moment as he rushed forward, too.

  “What happened?” Did they destroy her porch? Did they bring dead animals? Did they—

  “They ruined my orange flowers! Those flowers are so damn hard to grow!”

  Adam blinked. “Your…flowers?”

  Her eyes flared. “Those flowers are very important!”

  Adam looked at the window again, taking note of her backyard. Actually, all her flowers looked like they’d been stomped on for quite a while now, but the orange blooms in the middle were trampled on the most, petals and stems crushed beyond recognition.

  His eyes then went to the demons, and he counted them in his head.

  Then he turned to Hazel. “Still angry?”

  “Of course!”

  “Good.”

  “Good?”

  “Yes. Get that anger out. Let it fuel your energy. There are ten of them outside.”

  “Adam? What are you talking about?”

  He gave her a grim look. “Let’s take care of them now.”

  Chapter 11

  The first time Adam declared that they were going to fight the demons worried Hazel to no end, particularly because he wouldn’t be shifting and wouldn’t be able to use his full strength. But she lifted her chin up and decided to just cover for any weakness he had, not wanting him to be any more hurt than he already was by them. She prepared her magic, making sure everything was in place for her to blast those damned ugly creatures to oblivion.

  They did, after all, destroy her precious garden.

  Twenty minutes into the fight, Hazel realized Adam didn’t have any weakness at all—at least, not from where she was standing, right beside him as he shifted his arms and legs into claws with minimal energy and hacked into the demons with the grit of a warrior. He’d been right: these demons were decidedly stronger than the last ones, and Hazel now felt like she was using a butter knife to try to slice off their necks.

  And they were faster, too.

  Adam took the fight to the fields, and Hazel had no choice but to follow as they managed to kill one each. In the field, they had more freedom to move without destroying her cabin—but so did the demons, and the creatures surrounded them and peeked through the tall grass, hollow eyes hauntingly seeing. Their bodies were poised for the kill, and it took all of Hazel’s effort not to make any unnecessary noise as she walked from one corner to another and tried to keep them distracted.

  A few blasts of her energy here and there always had them running in her direction, and she was reminded of a shark that just smelled blood and got into a frenzy over it. In their case, it was her magic that made them lose their minds with hunger, and they practically scrambled over each other just to try to reach her.

  With a roar, Adam yanked most of them back, wrestling with them and ripping their bodies apart one by one. Blood sprinkled everywhere, but that blood evaporated quickly with the demons.

  Hazel found herself struggling during the last few bouts, the exhaustion taking over. But she glanced in Adam’s direction and found him trying to avoid getting swiped, too, almost losing out as one demon got too close and hit him near his ribs. Blood flowed out, making him growl, and they rolled around on the grass and had her breath hitching as she didn’t know who would survive that one.

  A demon leaped for her, teeth sharp and tail even sharper. It landed right on top of her just as her magic burst out in a shield, creating an invisible ball around her as she fell on her back. She used even more magic to coat her energy, like she did from the very start, afraid of getting detected and having more demons come for them.

  The demon clung on to her force field as if testing it out. Its black tongue came out to lick, right before its claws sunk in. The shield cracked.

  The tongue slid in, growing longer and headed right for her face.

  Realizing that the moment it touched her face, she’d be lost, Hazel acted quickly, letting electricity into her field. The demon shook, then burned. A scream filled the air as it charred, its tongue falling out and its chest bursting. The force field disappeared. The demon fell through, and she barely had time to roll to the side to avoid its weight crushing her.

  Just before the demon evaporated, another demon was leaping for her—

  Adam’s arm yanked at it and tore it apart. Then Adam slid beside her and
carried her bridal style, running for her backyard. He placed her down gently on the grass, then dropped down beside her in exhaustion.

  Hazel tried to gather her breathing.

  “Is the second wave done?” she asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Any idea when the next wave will come?”

  No answer.

  Hazel glanced at her side, alarmed to find Adam with his eyes closed. She scrambled on top of him and tried to pull him to a sitting position, gritting at his heavy weight. But she managed, and he finally opened his eyes. Belatedly, she realized his body was shaking badly, and that there was a slash on his stomach.

  She placed her fingers on it without thought, then proceeded to stitch him up, keeping her magic at a minimum just in case they got attacked again. But no attack came, and she managed to close the wound up, then clean the blood until it was completely gone. When she looked up, she found bronze eyes focused completely on her face, as if she was the only woman worth looking at.

  Her breath stopped.

  “Thank you,” he said gruffly, taking her hand from his stomach and rubbing her fingers with his. “Thank you for everything.”

  She swallowed a gulp, finding her mouth suddenly dry. “You’re welcome.”

  His fingers felt around her, settling on her elbows and making tingles erupt. “Are you hurt anywhere?”

  “I’m…aching,” she blurted out. Then she realized what she said, but there was no chance of backtracking anymore as she watched understanding flicker in his gaze.

  “Where?”

  Retreat. Stop this.

  “Everywhere,” she whispered.

  The attraction she’d been trying to fight fell through, coating them both. He’d stopped shuddering, but now his body was vibrating, a different kind of feeling in him now as he sat up straighter. It wasn’t only his body that sat up, and she felt it—felt his hard, hot ridge pulsing in between her lifted dress.

  And she knew, at that moment, that she lost the fight.

  *****

  They never made it past the kitchen.

  Adam had tried to carry her again until the porch, where he dropped her on her feet and they stumbled against each other, trying to race inside. They didn’t even get to close the door. Adam’s foot caught a bump that had him crash landing on his butt, and he cursed—but Hazel found she could only laugh and crawl into his lap before they found each other’s mouths and were kissing as if there was no tomorrow.

  There was no slowness this time. This kiss was hurried and verging on desperate, as they grew so hungry for each other that there was no room for anything else. Their hands moved, hers to remove his shirt completely off him and slide all over muscles that were heated and hard as a rock.

  His hands moved, too, sliding her top down until she was completely bare before his darkened eyes. Fingers explored, cupping the weight of her breasts before squeezing, thumbing her nipples in excruciating precision that had her eyes rolling back in her head.

  Adam topped it off with his mouth closing on one, and the pleasure that singed through her was unreal. He sucked. It shot from her stomach down to her core—just in time, too, as that was where his other hand went to slide the hem of her dress up and slowly slide her panties down. Fingers teased her again, sliding up and down her slit, and his mouth slid back up to tangle his tongue with hers. It made her feel alive after that deadly ordeal, and she wanted more.

  She needed more.

  Hazel didn’t realize her hands had already taken his cock out, but she wasn’t going to complain as she finally managed to wrap her fingers around its length. He bit back a groan and sucked on her tongue as they both worked on getting the tip to her entrance, his arm lifting her whole body up with ease.

  Their heavy breathing filled the air as she stayed there poised and looking at him.

  Slowly, he slid her body down on him, inch by slow inch until his shaft was completely inside her. His length made her feel full, stretched beyond her imagination, but it also made the ache disappear as it was replaced by a desire that almost made her crazy.

  He waited for her to adjust to him, waited for her tiny nod. Then his hands were on her hips, moving her body up and down, so strong that it turned her on. She moved with him, wrapping her hands around his shoulders and pressing her body against his as she ground and sought out that release they both needed.

  They knew getting into this that there was no turning back, and they knew there would be no slowness in this moment. Neither cared. Adam thrust with all his might, every drive inside her hitting her pleasure point and making her moan out loud as her body burned for him. She rode him fast and hard, reveling in his groan and the way he lost control as he pumped even harder inside her. A ball of electricity started up in her belly, one that had nothing to do with magic and everything to do with what was between them.

  His thumb caressed her nipple, and his other thumb slid down to feel her up.

  That was all it took. Hazel threw her head back in the air as her orgasm exploded before her, turning her blind and deaf to everything but the pleasure. She kept riding him, kept clinging to him as he pumped into her.

  Then she felt his body buck, felt him still as he, too, found what he needed.

  Chapter 12

  The knock on the door came the moment Hazel hit the shower—either a blessing or a curse, really, as it left Adam no choice but to answer it. Demons didn’t knock, and that assured him into letting his guard down a little as he strode to the living room and opened it up.

  The guard went back up when he saw who was there.

  Nikolai stood on the front porch, wearing civilian clothes and illuminated by a single light bulb. Further illumination came in the form of lightning, a drastic change in weather brought about by the double use of Hazel’s magic: both to expand energy and coat it at the same time to avoid detection.

  The look on the sheriff’s face indicated he was aware something was wrong. The frown indicated that Adam wasn’t the face he expected to see greeting him.

  “Where’s Hazel?”

  “Shower,” Adam replied simply, keeping it casual. “Is there anything you needed, Sheriff?”

  “I needed to talk to her.”

  “You can talk to me.”

  That didn’t sit well with the guy, but he didn’t insist. Instead, the sheriff looked at the sky as a series of thunder claps boomed. “Was there any activity here that may have caused this weather shift? Has Hazel been doing some experiments lately that we should be concerned about?”

  Adam tilted his head, trying to find the balance between delaying and not lying. On the one hand, he understood that the sheriff was just doing his job.

  On the other, the less involvement, the better.

  “She’s been experimenting on me,” Adam finally said, which had the sheriff’s brows rising until he continued. “She wants to know everything about dragon shifters and has been trying to use my time here to do so.”

  That was completely clinical, and there was nothing the sheriff could protest about that. “I hope she hasn’t been tiring herself out.”

  Oh, I’ll be tiring her out soon.

  Adam kept that to himself as he nodded his head. He met Nikolai’s eyes. “I’ll take care of her. She won’t be hurt as long as I’m here.”

  There was a moment of suspended silence as a certain tension hung in the air, followed by the bear shifter’s eyes widening slightly as he got what Adam meant. Adam braced himself for a fight.

  Instead, the sheriff stepped back, cleared all expression from his face, and nodded.

  “She’s a good friend,” the guy finally said. “I care about her because she’s one of us.”

  “I understand,” Adam replied. “Rest assured she’ll be okay.”

  Reluctantly, the sheriff nodded. Then he left, and Adam had a feeling he wouldn’t be seeing the man for a while.

  The house was quiet after that, save for the constant thunder booming outside. The non-presence of demons was a huge re
lief, and Adam knew they needed all the break they could get before the third wave came. He worried about that—worried how ten strong demons were almost too much for him and worried he might need to shift fully when it became fifteen. But shifting would attract more, so it was a dilemma.

  He wasn’t kidding when he said he wasn’t going to hurt Hazel, but now he worried that she’d be hurt, anyway, trying to help him out.

  Footsteps sounded as he crossed the area towards the stairs, and he watched as she came down fresh from her shower and looking like a breath of warm sunshine. Her curly hair was damp and lying casually around her shoulders, and her eyes zoned in on him right away, big and warm and very beautiful.

  “You’re my mate.”

  The words slid out of him before he knew it, and those eyes widened. Then understanding shifted in her gaze, and she nodded her head.

  It just made sense. It made sense more than anything had ever made sense in Adam’s life…and it felt right. That spurred him to hold out his arms towards her, then watch as she continued walking down the stairs and slid against him.

  He lifted her up, encouraging her to wrap her legs around his waist as he walked them over to the kitchen. Belatedly, delight slid in when he realized she was wearing his thermal shirt, the one she found him in when they first met. It was long and loose around her, and he found his hands sliding in to cup both her breasts, watching as her eyes darkened and her mouth opened to let out a heated breath.

  They stared at each other as the desire built, and he breathed against her lips without kissing her.

  “You’re my mate,” he repeated.

  “I am,” she whispered.

  Adam leaned down, pressing the shirt against her as he slid his mouth over it. The added texture made him work hard to find her nipple, and when he did, he sucked with fervor, earning him a throaty moan. He slid his mouth lower, lifting her shirt up and over her head, then appreciating the black lace panties she had on that were mere scraps.