Untamed Mate: A Shifting Destinies Bear Shifter Romance (Shifters of Bear's Den Book 6)

by Cecilia Lane

  “Need you,” she growled.

  Hudson grinned against her mouth and pulled just far enough back to notch his cock against her entrance, then pushed slowly into her.

  Slow. Slow. Even when he’d worked his way into her core, he took his time retreating and pushing back in. He didn’t fuck her to stop her thoughts in their tracks. He made love to her. He showed her the tender side he reserved for his mate.

  Hudson cupped her breasts and grazed his thumbs over her nipples. Each tiny pass arrowed straight to her core. She quivered. She trembled. Mara felt in danger of losing herself completely to the man and his promises.

  He drew her to the brink of pleasure and held her there, caught between bliss and his touch. So close. She could almost reach out and grab it. But then they’d move apart, and she wasn’t ready to let him go.

  He owned her. She could deny it day and night, but it was the truth.

  He pushed deeply into her again, his eyes bright silver as he watched her. His teeth ground together and his arms shook. He was close, too, and drawing them out to the very last second.

  “Hudson,” she whimpered.

  He snarled and gripped the back of her neck tightly as she shattered around him. She pulsed hard around him as he rammed into her again and again, all slow gentleness forgotten.

  “Mara,” he gritted out as he shot warmth into her.

  He held her pinned against the shower wall as the last of their aftershocks faded away. Kisses dotted her nose and eyes and cheeks.

  Mara didn’t fight to be set on the ground. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and admitted her deepest secret. She had no right to it, to him, but her inner animal claimed him anyways. “Mine.”

  Hudson nodded. “Yours.”

  Chapter 16

  Back in the truck and on the road—after another shower where she firmly locked the door—Mara tried to keep her restless energy contained. They had hours to drive to meet their backup at the buyer’s estate in Santa Fe. Hours to worry and imagine the horrid treatment given to innocent children. And hours of being locked up together with time ticking by at a crawl.

  Hudson didn’t make it easy. After she grilled him again on the plans and who would be watching until they arrived and how soon until they could move, he fell into contented silence. His hand rested on her thigh, sunglasses shaded his eyes from the setting sun, and the open road stretched out in front of them. He didn’t need anything else. He said he’d learned to live by the words ‘hurry up and wait’ and they were simply in a waiting period.

  Mara wished she could be as accepting of the situation as her mate.

  Mate.

  She waited for something to happen as she tested out the word in her head. The sky didn’t darken. Lightning didn’t fill the sky. She wasn’t struck dumb or deaf or blind. The word was new, frightening, and felt right.

  In her head, her lioness stretched and laid her head on her paws, as content as the man seated next to her.

  Part of her wanted to run screaming. What in the world made her think she deserved a moment of peace or a sliver of happiness?

  Hudson turned his head and flashed a bright smile. Her stomach flipped, and she found herself smiling right back.

  Oh yeah. That.

  Still, she waited for the other shoe to drop. Her life tripped her from one disaster to another. She didn’t believe for a second her bad luck would let her go so easily.

  The radio turned to static as they slid out of range of the tuned station. She leaned forward and scanned through the stations. Gospel. Country. Country. If she had to listen to another crooning voice singing about his wife running off with his dog and his truck, she’d tear the radio out of the dash.

  She passed over a news report, then switched right back to it when her brain caught up to the words she half heard. Stunned, she leaned back and listened to the announcer.

  “Allegations of widespread misconduct within the Supernatural Enforcement Agency is rocking the supernatural community today. Claims such as blackmail, mistreatment in facilities like the aptly named Shiftermax prison, and the attempted murder of an inmate within one of the so-called enclaves have been lobbed against the agency. Here is Meghan Wilcox, former actress and current voice of shifter rights, in a recent interview.”

  “Is it any wonder that an agency with policies pushed by those with a pro-human agenda would be infiltrated by those wanting to put an end to any supernatural person in existence? By the attacker’s own mouth, he claims affiliation with a notorious hunter group responsible for forcing shifters to fight—sometimes to the death—for their own amusement. The entire agency’s operations need to be halted and every single employee vetted thrice-over for bias against the very people they are supposed to be fairly applying laws.”

  Mara stared through the windshield and tried to process the words. Meghan spoke about her. The radio announcer talked about her. While she and Hudson were running around the country, another fight was gearing up because of her.

  She twisted her fingers together. “They don’t even know me.”

  Hudson squeezed her thigh. “Of course they do. Well, not personally. But they know me, and they know you’re my mate. You’re practically family.”

  “Hudson…”

  “Is this where you say you don’t deserve a mate? I thought we moved past that this morning.”

  Unbidden, thoughts of his arms around her pushed at her rising objections. She kicked the little devil inside her to the far corners of her mind. She needed to be honest with herself. Even mates experienced complications, and large ones awaited them. “You come with more than just yourself. You have a clan. Two of which I personally fucked over. So yes, it’s surprising to hear one of them jumping to my defense on the radio.”

  “Becca is more bark than bite, but don’t tell her I said that.”

  “Because she’ll bite?”

  “It’s more of an annoyance around the ankles,” he teased. “Look, Becca is very forgiving. She and Nolan had a bad breakup at the end of high school and it only took her ten years to talk to him again. Now they have twins and love micromanaging everyone else’s life.”

  “Not helping.”

  “Mara.” His strong tone brought her out of her tumbling nerves. “We’ll get there. We’ll make it work. Together.”

  She wanted to challenge him and tell him how wrong he’d be. No one could come back from something like abduction and make friends in the end. But she knew he’d just throw Sawyer and Everly at her in a counter move.

  Now, they were a story she couldn’t have predicted.

  They were also only two of a big clan. Two voices wouldn’t drown out the rest of the objections.

  Mara twisted her fingers together and stared out the window. Hudson didn’t take his hand off her thigh. She tried to draw comfort from the simple touch. Deepening despair and the need to move and distract filled her instead.

  “Do you ever get over it? The bad stuff?” she asked quietly.

  He turned to her. She could only see herself in the mirrored surface of his sunglasses, as wavy and distorted as she felt in her heart.

  His scent shifted. The light, earthy notes she’d grown so familiar with twisted into knots of uncertainty. “I wish I could tell you yes. But it’s always there at the back of your mind. You learn to forget it, stop poking at the memories like a bruise, but they’re part of you and there’s no changing that. You find a way to tame that part of yourself. You control it, not the other way around.”

  Hudson’s words from the last camp rang truer than ever. She was living a hard part of her life. The mornings hurt because she had to remember the previous days. Something else, some other problem, always waited around the corner.

  But the hardest part? Keeping herself together. A broken, jagged edge cut at her from the inside. She couldn’t pretend to be tamed for long.

  Her cat rubbed against her and Mara sank into her mind. They were two separate beings with the same feeling of incompleteness. Th
e holes in their hearts made it easy for the sharp edges to keep sticking them.

  Mara settled her hand over Hudson’s and squeezed. One part of her already accepted the solution. She needed to, as well.

  Mate.

  She twirled a finger through the air and jabbed it in his direction. “And all this has been you under control?”

  Hudson unabashedly shrugged. “I like a good fight. Keeps my bear steady and everything else in check. Plus, it’s been fun to chase you around and the prize at the end is better. The hot showers are nice, too. I’ve had to spend the last year taking ice baths because of you.”

  Mara opened her mouth to snark back at him and shut it with a snap. A bit of red paint on an otherwise cheerful advertisement for country style breakfast caught her attention.

  Mara whipped her head around, but they’d already passed the sign. “Hunters are here.”

  “What?” He looked in the rearview, then glanced at her. “How do you know?”

  “Graffiti on the billboard we just passed. A howling wolf was spray painted, with some squiggles around the exit number.”

  “That could be anything. Just some teenagers fucking around.”

  “It’s not. I’ve seen it before. We need to turn back around.” Her fingers drummed on the dash. She squinted ahead at the sign in the distance. Still too far for even her eyes to make out anything strange.

  “You want to take the edge off with a fight, don’t you?”

  “I want to help anyone we can get free.”

  Because it was the right thing to do. Because if the Strathorn clan defended her, she had to stick up for others who couldn’t help themselves. She’d done enough harm. She had to make amends somehow. That was the only way she could see herself having a future with Hudson. She needed to make her own peace, otherwise she’d always be looking for the trap to snap shut around her again.

  “You want to brawl and bleed something. No harm in admitting the truth.” He looked over his shoulder and merged into the exit lane.

  “Are you always this infuriating? I’m going to bleed you if you don’t stop.”

  “Careful, kitty. I might like that.” He snapped his teeth at her with a satisfied groan. “If this is what you need, then we’ll do it. Let’s stick your claws in something.”

  Stick her claws and make someone bleed? Yeah, that sounded about right. Better than letting her worries run away with her.

  Chapter 17

  Mara didn’t take long to find the exact location of the fight. Hudson kept insisting on a thousand reasons why they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but she trusted her gut and followed the signs. A red wolf here, a blue arrow there, all pointed her in the right direction.

  The collection of vehicles parked just off an abandoned road overgrown with weeds proved her right.

  “This is a bad idea,” Hudson insisted.

  “I didn’t know you were a coward.” Mara marched through the weeds and bit her tongue to hold back her complaint. The least the assholes could have done was clear a path.

  “Woman, would a coward be so determined to stick by your side? You’re damn scary when your mind is made up.” He snorted, then grabbed her hand to pull her to a stop. “We aren’t prepared. We don’t know the layout, or what sort of firepower they’re packing. How many in the crowd, working the floor, locked up? Are they beefed up because Ronnie threw a fit over playing with us?”

  “No person left behind, right? I thought that’s what you soldier boys were all about.” She spun to face him as she walked backward toward the clearing. A small stream of people gathered at an opening in the ground. “You coming or not?”

  Hudson growled and muttered some choice words under his breath, but he followed.

  The noise of the crowd grew louder as they descended the narrow stairs into darkness. The final step dropped them into what she imagined used to be someone’s bomb shelter. The low ceiling and thick, concrete walls belonged in a dystopian movie. The cage positioned in the middle completed the look with harsh floodlights shining down on the fighters circling one another.

  Men and a handful of women crowded around the barrier. Bets, jeers, and cheers were yelled from many mouths over the sounds of fists connecting. Others gave their attention to the makeshift bar in one corner, where a man with wispy hair and a mean face served drinks from giant plastic coolers and kegs.

  The energy of the room danced over Mara’s skin and lifted the hair on her arms. The scent of blood and sweat filled her nose. She didn’t know how many times she stood by and watched Matthew fight in a ring, both free and as a captive.

  She expected a familiar pang of sadness to clench her stomach, but only anger made her blood boil. Her lioness latched onto the emotion and crouched low, ready to spring into action.

  Hudson shouldered his way next to her and watched the fight with disinterest for a long second. “This is your show, kitty. Tell me who to punch and when.”

  Mara smoothed her smile. She could get used to his honest devotion. His entire approach to life was refreshing. She doubted he had a sly bone in his body. If there was something that needed doing, he did it. He wasn’t bothered by letting her take charge and didn’t blink when he needed to step up.

  He knew how to distract her from her thoughts. He didn’t shy away from a fight, and while he tried to stand between her and harm, it was never because he doubted her. Hudson simply wanted to keep her safe.

  A trio of vicious blows sent one fighter to the ground. The crowd roared. Fists pumped into the air, and drinks sloshed over the sides of plastic cups. Insults were lobbed at the loser, the victor, and the supporters and the doubters.

  Hudson slashed his gaze over the crowd. Mara followed his example while the cage door opened up. The victor threw punches into empty air as the crowd yelled for more.

  Two men made room for the shifter to exit. He growled and snapped his teeth at the crowd he passed, which made them yell louder. When he was gone, two more stepped inside and hauled the unconscious shifter away.

  One man stepped into the center of the ring and pulled a microphone from his pocket. He tapped it twice before screeching into it. “Three more fights, gentlemen and ladies. Three more chances to make some scratch before the main event! But first, who will test their strength against our most ferocious fighter? He’s knocked out every opponent thrown his way for three months. Will you be the one to take this monster down?”

  Mara leaned into Hudson. Even with better hearing, her voice was in danger of being drowned out by the crowd. “He’ll be bled before he goes in and probably pumped full of silver to make it an even match,” she informed him.

  “They sure do get creative in their need to win,” Hudson muttered.

  The shifters were led around the back of the crowd. In a dark corner, another burly shifter waited for the order to move. Mara pursed her lips and swept her eyes back over the room. Other than the stairs, it was the only other access point she could see.

  “There. No one is going near, so you know it’s not the bar or bathrooms.” She jerked her chin toward a dark corner and a round opening for a tunnel, not unlike the ones beneath Bearden. She doubted the bunker’s would be so extensive or filled with vampires, though.

  Pity. The crowd could do with a little thinning.

  “We need a distraction.”

  “Like a power outage?” A casual glance over her shoulder pinned their focus on a silver panel halfway between the stairs and the bar.

  “You gorgeous, devious little monster,” Hudson praised with a mischievous smirk. “That means I’m up. Have to know a little about shutting power off when you’re working a fire.”

  “Teamwork makes the dream work.” He devoured her in a quick, hungry rake of his eyes up and down her body, then set off in a meandering path toward the panel.

  The announcer egged on the crowd, daring them to step into the ring with a dangerous beast. They worked themselves up, too, with elbows and shoves and questioning of a friend’s manhood.
One man finally stepped forward, finished his drink with a last swig, and crushed the can against his forehead. He flexed his arms with a savage roar while his drugged opponent looked on without comment.

  Hudson sidled the last few feet along the wall, then went past it. Mara raised her eyebrow, but Hudson turned into her so they both framed the panel. “I’d love to get this asshole in a fair fight,” he said as he eased open the door.

  “Unfair would be better. Really make him squirm, one claw at a time.”

  “Tag team it? Two on one?”

  She was sure there was rhyme and reason to the control box, but she didn’t have time for a complex analysis. Hudson didn’t seem to care for a complicated solution, either. All the switches turned up were flipped down. The floodlights powered off and the high whine of electricity running through the cage died to nothing.

  The sudden plunge into darkness triggered deep instincts in the human crowd. Panic and fear overwhelmed the bloodlust and need for dominance. Their ancestors survived by listening to their healthy fear of the dark and now they were the ones surrounded by predators.

  The shifter in the cage howled and roared. The fence rattled with a testing slap, then another.

  “We need to move,” Hudson insisted.

  He wasn’t the only one with the idea. The humans, so recently entertained by their shifter captives, wanted away as far and fast as they could manage. Poor eyesight and a raging flight instinct shoved them all toward the stairs.

  One shoulder sent Mara stumbling back a step. A second separated her from Hudson. A pained cry from behind drove the bleating humans blindly forward.

  The press of the crowd shoved Mara further and further from Hudson. She tried to move between the packed bodies, but they were too close and too big. Her lioness could rip through the soft bodies. They were shitty people, too. Some scratches would serve them right.

  A hand wrapped around the back of her neck and drew her close. The big male smelled like fur and metal. He moved them with the crowd and at an angle. Further from Hudson and far from the center press of people. She clawed at his hand, but he laughed and picked her up like a kitten.