Bear Outlaw (She-Shifters of Hell's Corner Book 4)

by Candace Ayers

  I stood up and turned away from him. Wrapping my arms around myself, I blew out an unsteady breath and blinked away tears. God, this mate shit sucked.

  I felt his breath on my back as he stepped closer to me. His fingers were warm as he touched my neck.

  “Let me see it, babe.”

  At his prompting, I tilted my head, exposing my neck and shoulder to him. The pain was already better, but the position was a sensitive one to be in. Leaving my neck open to him. I wasn’t normally submissive.

  His body heat warmed me as he moved in even closer and his fingers lightly squeezed the back of my neck. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” His lips gently kissed my shoulder.

  I glanced at my wound, but it was already almost healed. It was really my pride that was wounded for having lost. That, and I wasn’t happy about being naked in the woods with the man I hated, but my shoulder was fine.

  10

  Axel

  Fuck. Fuck. I was a fucking prick on the best of days. I knew that and made no apology for it, but never have I ever raised a hand to a female. I despised men who did. Weak, insecure assholes, every one of them. Yet, I hurt my mate. It wasn’t my intention to hurt Charlie. We were playing and things got out of hand, and my bear tried to claim her.

  What a fucking panty waste was becoming. First, I have erectile issues with every woman who isn’t Charlie, then I chomp a bite out of my mate without her permission. What the fuck was I even doing there? I had no business bothering Charlie. I needed to shift back and get the fuck away from her and from this town.

  Even as the though crossed my mind, she turned and looked over her shoulder and into my eyes, and I was fucked. There was no way I was leaving. My cock was hard and my bear was raging to get another shot at claiming her. He was making demands; my body was making demands. And when her eyes met mine with so much emotion in them, I was lost.

  I trailed my hand down her back, feeling every ridge in her spine and savoring the silkiness of her skin. “You’re healing up already.” When I reached the top of her ass crack, she sucked in a sharp breath and I wrapped my hand around her hip.

  If I thought she’d pull away, I was wrong. She let me run my fingers over her flat belly and linger there. Her body shivered and the scent of her arousal was overwhelming.

  I stepped into her, pressing my body against the back of hers. She was tall enough that with my legs spread to lower myself, my hard cock fit perfectly in the space between her thighs. Touching her like that felt as though I’d opened an electrical current. Energy buzzed through us, from her to me and back, and my fingers tightened against her hip bones and pulled her tighter against me.

  Charlie gripped the tree in front of her, her fingers digging into the bark. Her pupils dilated and her eyes darkened as she continued to hold my gaze over her shoulder. She took her bottom lip between her teeth and bit.

  A low growl emanated from my chest. I’d never been one to do the best thing, or the right thing, so even though I knew that with no plans of staying in town or remaining with her, I was playing with fire, I couldn’t walk away. Her warm curves were a magnet and I was drawn uncontrollably. I wrapped my other arm around her ribcage, just her under tits, and held tightly. She was fucking soft and she smelled so incredibly delicious I could hardly think. My brain was mush. Her long, thick hair, even full of leaves and dirt, was soft as it brushed against my arm and chest.

  Her gaze flickered down to my mouth and then back to my eyes. The heat she held in that gaze was blazing, and with that one look, I was done for. I told myself not to, but I leaned forward anyway. I kissed the tender flesh of her neck and my cock twitched when she moaned in response. Trailing my teeth and tongue around her neck, over her healing shoulder, and up her throat and chin, I tasted as much of her sweet skin as I could. If I was going to fuck up and do something stupid, I wasn’t going to half-ass it. I was going to fuck up royally.

  By the time I got close to her mouth, Charlie was arching her hips into me and moaning. Her thighs gripped my hard cock and squeezed. She let out a breathy sigh just before I touched my lips to hers and all the tension snapped. She wrapped one of her arms around and grabbed the back of my head as she swiped her tongue over my lips.

  Kissing her hit me like bolt of lightning. I pressed harder into her body and held her tighter. I brushed my tongue against hers and felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Honey. Overwhelming honey and cream, like the best dessert I’d ever tasted. Circuits fried in my brain as she consumed me from the outside in. It was unlike anything I’d ever felt and I knew that I was in trouble, skirting the edge of sanity.

  I moved my hand up and cupped her heavy tit in my hand. Her hard nipple brushed my palm and I couldn’t resist the urge to rake my thumb over it. Her hips twitched against mine and I moved my other hand between her thighs to explore her there, too.

  She was wet. Her honey dripped down her thighs and my mouth watered at the urge to taste her juices. Her hand locked in my hair held me in place, though. Her lips and tongue were hypnotizing as I kissed her deeper and harder.

  I brushed my fingers over her pussy lips and swore into her kiss. Velvet and silk. She was the best fucking thing I’d ever felt. I pushed through her folds and found her clit. Flicking it with my fingertip, I shifted my hips and nudged her entrance with the tip of my cock.

  Moaning and steadily rocking her hips against me, Charlie kept her mouth on mine. One of her hands still gripped the tree and as I pushed my hips harder against her, her other hand tugged tighter at my hair.

  I squeezed and massaged her tits. Her honey coated my cock, slickening it until it easily slid against her. I tilted my hips and the next thrust forward had my cock head penetrating her opening. My heart raced and everything stilled as I pushed into her tight little pussy. She squeezed and milked me, her core pulsing, even before I got all of my length inside her. She was so fucking tight, I almost couldn’t fit.

  “You’re so huge. Oh, god, yes, do it, fuck me.”

  Charlie’s head fell back, resting on my shoulder and when she opened her eyes to look at me, they were glowing. Bright blue, intense, and fucking beautiful. I could see how out of control she was. Her wolf was right at the surface and she was drowning in our shared passion just as much as I was.

  I pressed my mouth against her throat and growled as I slowly pulled out. Her body clung to me, her muscles straining to keep my cock where it was. Sliding back in was enough to make my whole world tilt on its axis.

  I repeated the slow, sweet torture. Again. And again. I cupped her mound, my fingers still on her clit, drumming it, teasing her. I kept her body pressed as tightly to mine as I could, needing to keep as much contact with her as I could. She was so responsive and as I licked and nibbled the side of her throat, she cried out for me again.

  “Yes, oh, god, yes.”

  I raked her sweet skin with my teeth, as my hips moved faster and faster, her body milking me harder. I could feel that she was close to an orgasm and a part of me felt like a wall was crumbling. I didn’t want to ever stop. There was a feeling that fucking her evoked that I knew I’d never find anywhere else, no matter how long or how hard I searched.

  I raked my thumb over her nipple once more before moving my hand up to hold her throat. I felt her swallow and her muscles tense and release as she moaned and gasped. I drummed my fingers over her clit and rocked into her harder as we both drew closer to the edge. She moaned and cried out.

  “Yes, fuck me harder, yes!”

  She let go of the tree and pressed her hand over mine on her throat, her nails biting into my skin. She was completely at my mercy. Feeling her let go and give everything to me—total surrender—unleashed something in me and I pumped in and out of her at a furious pace.

  I felt her pussy spasm around me and tighten until it felt like she was squeezing the orgasm out of me. As she started to come, her body shook and her eyes met mine. A fire burned in her eyes. Her expression of fierce abandon combined with the feeling of h
er body wrapped tightly around my cock, pushed me right along with her. I thrust into her once more and froze as every muscle in my body tightened taking me to the very edge.

  The fluttering of her pulse in her throat caught my attention and I felt myself slip. My canines elongated. Without another thought, I sank my teeth into her neck as I reached the very pinnacle of pleasure and exploded, coming harder than I’d ever come, filling her body with me seed as she let out a primal scream and pulsated so hard her entire body trembled. Her cunt grasped and squeezed my cock so hard it was almost painful. Her nails dug into the back of my neck and raked across my hand tearing flesh.

  I felt as though I’d never stop ejaculating. Her scream turned into a whimper and panting and in that moment, I knew exactly what she was feeling. I knew her wolf, I knew her mind. When I pulled my teeth from her neck and licked the spot I’d marked her, another pulse tremor rocked through both our bodies. I couldn’t tell where I stopped and she began as the pleasure went on and on.

  It was all-consuming, so exquisitely intense that I didn’t even realize what I’d done. I was a different man in those moments. A man who wanted nothing more than to protect, care for, and pleasure his mate. A man so at peace with his bear and his mate’s wolf that nothing could ever be wrong.

  It was unfortunate that the feeling faded as reality set in.

  11

  Charlie

  Reality slapped me upside the head. My eyes flew open. I was staring at the trunk of an oak tree struggling to find my focus. Slowly, bit by bit, I realized what’d just happened. He’d marked me. Claimed me. My back was still plastered against his rock-hard chest and abs, his cock was still inside me. At the realization, a tingle ran through me from my toes to my fingertips and my body pulsed and clamped down on him once more. He groaned.

  I could smell him. He smelled like a campfire with roasted marshmallows. It was one of my favorite things and I cursed fate. Of course, he smelled like that. I just hadn’t noticed before because I had no sense of... Wow. I could smell him. I could smell everything. All scents around me that before were present but dull, seemed to suddenly have a much greater potency.

  It wasn’t just that I could smell him, I could also feel him. Physically, and emotionally. Enough to know he was feeling some of the same panic that I was feeling, mixed with a dizzying about of pleasure. I didn’t want to be happy that I’d rocked his world just as much as he’d rocked mine, but that stupid feeling of pride was there.

  He’d marked me. “Oh, shit.”

  “Yeah.” He slid his finger over my raw, angry flesh and my body reacted and squeezed him again. He groaned. “Fuck, you’ve got to stop doing that if we’re planning on separating at some point.”

  “Oh, shit.”

  “You already said that. Got anything else?”

  What was mild panic escalated to epic proportions. I wiggled away from him and cursed as he slid out of me, leaving me with a sloppy mess and an annoyingly empty feeling. I turned and took a step back, around the side of the tree, to put some space between us and crossed my arms over my chest, as though covering my breasts would give me back some sense of moral decency.

  “Oh, fuck.”

  “Okay, that’s something else.”

  “Why did you do it?” I gestured towards my neck. “What the hell were you thinking?”

  He winced. “Look, babe, I wasn’t intending to.”

  “Babe? This is insane.” I ran my hands through my hair and then covered myself when I saw his eyes rake over my body. “We haven’t even introduced ourselves, yet! I don’t know your name!”

  He rubbed at his face and shrugged. “I’m Axel.”

  I threw my hands in the air. “I never said I wanted to know your name. This can’t be happening. I don’t want a mate. I don’t want you!”

  “Well, it sure as hell wasn’t my first choice. I’m living a good life. Settling down is nowhere on my bucket list.”

  “Then why the fuck did you mark me?”

  “I told you. It wasn’t my intent. It just happened. Your body, you, you’re like a drug, or something.” When I started to grin, he shook his head. “I don’t mean it as a compliment, sweetheart. I lost my mind for a second there. I never would’ve claimed you if I’d been in my right mind.”

  I scoffed. “You’re a fucknugget.”

  He grinned like I was telling jokes. “So you’ve said. What is a fucknugget, anyway?”

  “You!”

  “Well, I’m a fucknugget whose come is still dripping out of your pussy and running down your thighs.”

  My mouth fell open and I stared at him in shock for several seconds. He was hella sexy and he rocked my world like I never thought possible, but he was the most aggravating man I’d ever met. I shook my head and held up my hands before slapping them back over my chest and crotch. “I am not doing this. I don’t want a mate and if by some remote chance I ever did, he damned sure wouldn’t be you.”

  He threw his head back and laughed hard. “No offense taken, sweetheart, especially since a few minutes ago you were begging for my cock.” The smirk on his face infuriated me. It was worse when he started sing-songing in a girly voice, mocking me. “Fuck me, oh, oh, put your cock in me, yes, yes…”

  I was going to kill him. Justifiable homicide. He couldn’t even take an insult, the arrogant bastard. “Chalk it up to a momentary lapse in judgement. And I’m not the one who marked you, am I?”

  “Another momentary lapse in judgement.”

  I could feel the attraction, anger and confusion radiating off of him. It was the same weird mix of emotions that I was feeling. I didn’t want to stand around and argue with him, though. “Have a great life, Axel. I’ll see you—never, I hope.”

  “And we’re just going to ignore the fact that we’re mates? That I just claimed you?”

  “What do you want to do? Come back to my place and play twenty questions to get to know each other before we settle in for a long life of happily ever after together?” I turned and started walking away. “Yes. We’re just going to fucking ignore it.”

  If he said anything else, I didn’t hear it. I shifted back into my wolf and raced off heading towards home. I needed to get away from him and what we’d done and all the mixed-up feelings I was feeling as fast as I could. What a mistake. What a colossal, monumental, mammoth mistake we’d made.

  I tried to hurry home, but every step was like fighting the pull of a magnet to get my wolf away from him. I used all my energy just to force her to keep moving ahead. By the time I did get home, I was exhausted. I shifted back, let myself into my house and collapsed on the stairs.

  I just sat there, feeling worn and spent and confused, wondering what the hell I’d just done. It was one thing to ignore your mate. That had a set of consequences that were more often negative than not, but wearing a claiming mark and ignoring it? That wasn’t something that was done. To do so meant severe consequences. I knew it just as surely as I knew my own name. Memory loss, depression, despondency, even outright insanity. I didn’t see another choice, though.

  Even if I was physically capable of having a family and leading a normal shifter life, Axel was a fucknugget. I had zero interest in being with him. No matter how hot he was. And how big his muscles were. And how panty melting his kisses were. And how commanding he was with my body. Zero interest.

  My shoulder ached and I reached up to feel the bruised area from his bite. His first bite. When I brushed my fingers along the second bite, the one that counted, shivers ran down my spine and it was almost like I could feel his fingers on my skin again.

  A connection had been formed between us. A bond. An almost tangible thing that tied us to one another and opened a weird line of silent communication. I felt him. It was unnerving.

  Something else, the weirdest side effect of all, perhaps, but my senses were sharper. Since he’d marked me, it wasn’t just my sense of smell, which had always been practically nonexistent, that was sharp and clear, just like any normal wolf s
hifter’s. I could see things clearer and I could hear sounds from what felt like miles away.

  I forced myself to climb the stairs and step into the shower. Turning on the cold water, I gasped when I stepped under the jets. I needed something to shock my sanity back into me. I needed some kind of come to Jesus moment with myself. Whatever had happened between Axel and I was just a moment in time. It was over and done with. None of it mattered.

  I could never be his mate, even if he wasn’t a fucknugget. Shifters were mated for the purpose of having families. Not me, though. Claiming mark or no claiming mark, I’d never be able to give him that. Pain radiated from my middle and I sucked up tears that wanted to escape. Life was hard. That’s just the way it was.

  Groaning, I shoved my head under the icy cold jets and let the freezing water cleanse me.

  12

  Axel

  When I entered Charlie’s shop to retrieve my clothes before heading back to meet up with the club, her scent was like a gut punch. It knocked the breath right outta my lungs. I dressed, wondering if she’d come back while I was still there. My bear was hopeful, but I just wanted to get the fuck out and get some whiskey in me. Something to dull the ache.

  I didn’t know what to think. I’d claimed a mate who didn’t want me. Not only that, but the bitch was a wolf. An uptight, nose-in-the-air, holier-than-thou wolf bitch. While I should’ve just fucked her brains out and been on my way, but no, I had to go and marked her as mine. She was going to wear my scent. That thought made my dick twitch. I had her scent all over me, too.

  I looked around her store and growled, annoyed. I’d come out to clear my head and calm the fuck down, and I was going back to the house more stressed and pissed off than when I’d left. I flipped the lock on her front door and put up the closed sign before leaving through the back to head back to where I’d parked my bagger.