Predator

by Vonna Harper

  If she mated with Stark, would she join him in his mission?

  Hands on her thighs and her mouth now empty, she looked up at the man who’d already changed her world and would alter it even more if she didn’t flee. With his legs splayed wide and his fingers around his cock as if sheltering it, he returned her gaze. Because he was in shadow, she couldn’t make out the nuances of what rode in his eyes, but her electrified body easily and freely absorbed the messages.

  The next move was up to her.

  Her pulse thundering in her temple, she leaned back. Maybe the mountain gods approved because when she repositioned herself so her legs were stretched out in front of her, soft grasses protected her rump and palms. She trusted the same mountain gods to supply her back and shoulders with the same support when the time came.

  “You want this?” he asked.

  “Not just want.”

  “I’m talking about more than us having sex.”

  “I know.” Hopefully, he didn’t need more right now because her lips had become numb. In contrast, her body vibrated.

  “Do you understand?” Long, strong fingers caressed his swollen-as-hell cock. “Everything?”

  “I can’t comprehend it all. I don’t know how I’m going to react to what you and Cougar Spirit want from me. Right now, the only thing I need in life is you inside me.”

  He was just standing there, waiting for what? Unnerved, she fought the impulse to caress her aching hole. Although digging her nails into the ground kept them off her, she’d become a mass of nerve endings, a fire desperate for the wind that would send her sexual flames reaching for the sky. She needed, damn it! Needed that incredible cock of his buried so deep in her that it might remain there forever.

  Nothing else mattered.

  A long, deep breath aimed at tamping down the flames turned into a howl. Knowing she was responsible for the sound shocked her; at the same time, she accepted it as proof of her descent into the world Stark and Cougar Spirit shared.

  No longer contained by her human form, she’d match Cougar Spirit stride for stride. Maybe she’d grow claws and fangs. And what about Stark? Would he run and fight and maybe kill beside her and the cougar?

  Looking up, up at that now harsh and hard naked body gave her the answer. Yes, because he and Cougar Spirit had already become one.

  Get out! Run!

  I can’t. Not now.

  Not taking his eyes off her, Stark leaned down and untied his boots. Then he kicked them off and stepped out of his jeans and briefs. This is what I am, his stance said. What I have to offer.

  Supporting her upper body on her left elbow and forearm, she curled in so she could easily reach what she had to offer him. Unashamed, she parted her folds and exposed her pussy to him. He nodded, then sank to his knees. Still displaying herself, she offered no resistance when he spread her legs and slid into the space he’d created.

  They were speaking without words, asking and answering unspoken questions.

  And Cougar Spirit had returned.

  She didn’t have to look at the beast to know his attention was locked on the two humans. Maybe she should send him a message letting him know she was no mindless female in heat he could mold however he wanted. Just because there was a connection of sorts between them didn’t mean she’d surrendered her will and future. She had a life, damn it, a world she’d spent years creating. Why would she turn her back on that to protect this damnable mountain?

  A touch, Stark’s fingers running up her inner thighs, wrenched her thoughts from the predator. When Stark’s fingers continued their march, she leaned back again, but she’d watch as long as he explored her cunt. And when he was done…

  There was no searching, no teasing or toying, just a simple and complex contact between fingertip and clit. Hissing, she rocked her pelvis toward him. He withdrew, then touched again. Once more her breath whistled; this time she tilted her pelvis upward, a bold and unashamed bitch offering herself.

  For endless seconds, he stroked her hard and quaking nub. Then his finger was gone, and it took every bit of self-control not to sink her teeth into him. She was trying to straighten when he flattened his hands over her breasts and pushed. At the last moment, he looped an arm behind her back and guided her to the ground. When her spine rested on the grasses and the smell of growth and dirt was strong in her nostrils, he slid his hand out from under her.

  She studied the powerful form over her. He consumed her. That’s what it came down to, being consumed. And yet, there was no fear in her, no sense of being overpowered. Surrendering to a message and force without words, she raked his shoulders. He responded by growling, the sound rumbling over and in her. Leaning low, he nipped at her shoulders, the bite hard enough to abrade her skin. Sighing, she hooked an arm around his neck and guided his head so his face was between her breasts.

  He licked and nibbled the hollow before doing the same to each breast. Inhuman sounds escaped her gaping mouth; she thought she heard Cougar Spirit growl.

  Somehow Stark was between her wide-spread legs, his cock pressing against her opening. Her feral sounds became hungry whimpers as she lifted her pelvis to welcome him.

  There. In. Hard and strong. United.

  Knowing she was trapped as she’d never been, she scooted down and further sealed the union. He did more than fill her, more than consume her. She’d become part of him, not separate human beings united by sex, but fused body and mind.

  The time of resisting, of running, of demanding freedom, was over. For now. There was only his cock pressing against her inner tissues and a fullness that resonated throughout her. Blinking him into clarity, she bent her knees so her heels rested on the base of his ass. Her hands gripped his buttocks.

  “Finally. Oh God, finally.” She wasn’t sure which of them had spoken.

  He’d lifted his upper body and was supporting it by locking his right elbow, his hand inches from her neck. His gaze was intense, his body hard and trembling. He put her in mind of an impending storm, a whip and whirl of wind and energy. Electricity hummed around her, reminding her of the seconds before a lightning strike when the air gathers itself for the explosion. Giving herself up to the storm, she became a reckless mortal by embracing the strength and relentless power. How many times had she huddled under a sheltering tree with rain pounding all around, or stared out at a purple-black sky splintered by lightning strikes, humbled by nature’s might?

  Nature. Animal. She’d become both those things.

  “We’re one,” she said with her heart beating like a frenzied drum.

  “It has begun.” With that, he drove into her, powering himself deep and wide.

  It has begun. Did he mean there’d never be an end and that today’s fucking would unite them for life? Sudden fear that she’d never again be a separate person blunted her body’s response to the spearing cock. She didn’t realize she’d scratched his buttocks until he brought his face within an inch of hers.

  “Don’t.” That’s all he said, don’t. And with the command, the fear slipped away to be replaced by that sense of oneness. She was his. And he’d become hers. For now.

  There. His body pulling away and then powering forward, harsh and wild. There was nothing restrained or civilized about his thrusts. He came at her again and again until she was dizzy with his strength, her pussy a million fragments of sensation.

  She was nothing under him, a frail female being fucked by an alpha male, a vessel, a receptacle.

  No, she amended as he forced an arm under her shoulders and lifted her off the ground. She was no damsel or helpless and hapless bitch. He’d freed her, shaken off the shackles of civilization.

  She stared up at the sky and treetops, her world a kaleidoscope of blue and green and dancing branches with a solitary hawk and beyond the drifting predator a jet trail.

  So far away. Part of a foreign world.

  Just as she reached the edge, his body-jarring thrusts slowed to long, sleek glides. His cock caressing her cunt walls put
her in mind of a sightless man exploring his world with his fingertips. The gentle strokes kept her just below the brink and made it possible for her to concentrate on each touch, every embrace. Gripping his upper arms, she closed her eyes, her mind holding on to the colors and dancing branches, the watching hawk.

  Cougar Spirit too was watching. She felt the predator’s steady gaze on every inch of her, his impact blending with Stark’s and becoming one.

  No fear now, not even question. She accepted that Cougar Spirit had somehow blended and united with Stark.

  Stark again nibbled at her breasts, again laid a wet trail between them. She realized he was marking her, giving himself in the pure and uninhibited way of an animal. And because she was his mate today, she clung to him and tightened her pussy muscles until his cock stilled.

  “What—are you doing?” he demanded.

  “We’re equals.” The words closed around her. “For right now, we are,” she tried to amend. “This—all I want is to fuck. Just fuck.”

  “Then let me do my job.”

  Forcing herself to relax, she concentrated on the press of skin against skin. He loomed over her, his weight holding her to the ground. Her teeth and nails might stop him, but if he was as primitive as she sensed, aggression on her part would only trigger the same from him.

  There, his cock once more challenging her, moving free and full. Although she loved the sweat and smell and hunger of sex, her most violent climaxes had come from clit stimulation. She hadn’t had that many partners and only two had truly gotten it. As for why she hadn’t said anything to Stark—

  Because you’re afraid you’ll never be able to put yourself back together.

  Casting off dangerous thoughts of what it would feel like to have his tongue and teeth and fingers controlling her over-the-top sensitive nub, she turned her head to the side and stared up at the sky. She was trying to make it come into focus when he nibbled the side of her neck.

  Explosion! Not a climax, but an unraveling of her senses.

  “Stop! Oh God, I can’t—stop.”

  Instead of ceasing his attack, he closed his mouth around tendon and vein. Heat from his expelled breath bloomed from ear to shoulder.

  “Oh God, God!”

  Holding on much as a lion or tiger might control its prey, he continued. In her mind, she saw his toes pressing against the ground as he drove himself into her. No matter that she was in over her head, she clasped his arms with all her strength. Her heels pressed against his ass, and sweat sealed them together.

  She’d become animal, as wild as he was, knowing nothing beyond need. She writhed under him. Everything in her became movement and action, energy firing throughout her. By turn she clung to his arms, pulled his head down against her breasts, or dug her fingertips into his buttocks. By arching to the side, she managed to bury a thumb in his crack. Once there she prodded and teased and laughed when he tried to pull away.

  “Get back here,” she commanded, slapping his buttocks with her free hand. “Take your punishment.”

  “Doesn’t—damnation—doesn’t feel like punishment.”

  He’d released her throat so he could speak, and instead of reclaiming his predator hold, he closed in on her left breast. Sucking her nipple into his wet mouth, he lifted his head a little, bringing her breast up with him.

  The drawing sensation, ah, hell, it sent her off into a new direction. Everything was happening at once, his cock claiming and pounding, his body imprisoning hers, mouth taking ownership of her breast, one arm again bracing his upper body while the other slid under her back and once more lifted her off the ground. Her thumb slipped out of the home she’d found for it; she let her head dangle.

  Too far gone. Incapable of meeting him strength for strength after all. Floating and flailing in his grip. Sensation sparking from her captured breast and throughout her invaded pussy, the flame-shards meeting in her belly and womb.

  I’m coming.

  Raw female cries exploded as the first wave slammed into her. “Help me!” she sobbed. “Oh, shit, help—damn! Oh, damn!”

  Other sounds, rough and wild and uncontrolled, accompanied by his wet heat deep inside said his own climax had hit him. He’d become all male animal and as such utterly vulnerable, but she was too far gone to do more than scratch his shoulder.

  Heat. Again and again. Waves of fire tearing at her sanity and making her cry out. She was as lost and vulnerable as he was, afraid of her body’s relentless power and yet diving deep and free into wild pleasure. Familiarity with the ways of her climaxes did her no good. They’d never before gone on and on until she believed she’d break apart.

  Her clit, throbbing, fired and firing. Short-circuiting over and over again. Shaking her as a cat shakes a mouse. Help me! she wanted to beg. At the same time, nothing had ever felt this good.

  “Ah, ah, ah-ah.” She whispered because her strength was spent. At the same time she clung to the powerful beast who’d ripped her apart and was the only creature who could put her back together again.

  His cock jerked inside her, the movements slowly quieting as if it were dying, and she sensed he felt as overwhelmed as she did. Wave after wave rocked her. They rolled together so she couldn’t tell when one ended and another began or if there was a distinction between them, but the intensity was lessening. She filled her lungs to ease her lightheadedness.

  His weight pushed down and around her, pinning her beneath him. Even when his climax had spent itself and there was nothing left of him except sweat and exhaustion, his strength still rolled over her.

  He had her in every way a man could possibly have a woman. In the ways of a savage beast ruled by primitive urges.

  And that was why her own climax—or was it a multitude of climaxes—continued to live.

  Too much! More than he’d expected.

  Eyes shut against the world, Stark struggled to silence his thoughts. The fault was his, his and his damnable obsession. Cougar Spirit had brought him so deep into the creature’s world that he’d all but forgotten anything else existed.

  He’d committed himself to safeguarding the mountain even if it meant risking his life. What he hadn’t comprehended, what maybe he’d refused to acknowledge, was that others might not embrace the same goals.

  The moment he’d seen her, he’d wanted her body and mind, her voice and smile. The clawing need had blinded him to everything else, and he’d let himself believe she’d embrace his quest. Be his mate.

  Now the darkness was lifting, forcing him to acknowledge that she was more than a soft body and feminine voice. She was much more than the being Cougar Spirit had led him to. No matter what he did, he couldn’t touch Mia’s mind or heart or soul, and without those things, she’d never be the companion he’d sought.

  Let her go. Take her back to her world.

  No! I won’t be alone, I won’t!

  Chapter Nine

  Cougar Spirit stood where Mia had spotted him when she and Stark were having sex. As far as she knew, the magnificent creature hadn’t moved the whole time.

  Stark had rolled off her, but his arm was thrown over her breasts, and his leg lay over hers, continuing to hold her down. Every inch of his flesh was sweat-caked; his long hair clung to his forehead and cheeks. Although something that might be panic kept clawing at her senses, she refused to let it overwhelm her. He was watching her intently, undoubtedly recording her every move and expression.

  But what was he thinking?

  One spring morning, she’d happened upon a coyote as it silently circled a crippled rabbit. Instead of pouncing on the hapless creature and killing it, the coyote had studied its prey much as Stark was studying her. Man and predator had the same look in their eyes, a simple statement of power and strength. The coyote had wanted the rabbit to know its life would end when and how the coyote determined. Stark needed her to acknowledge that her future was under his control and command.

  “You aren’t going to let me go, are you?” She didn’t move.

&n
bsp; “Cougar Mountain needs you.”

  So it wasn’t just because Stark wanted her as his mate. A force larger than both of them held the ultimate trump card.

  “You aren’t enough?” she asked. “You can’t protect and defend this mountain without my help?”

  “I don’t want to do it alone. Cougar Spirit doesn’t want that for me, either.”

  There it was, a simple statement that marked the direction her life would take if she turned everything over to something she barely comprehended. She could tell Stark that just because he’d accepted the mountain’s challenge didn’t mean she was willing to throw away her future for something she’d known nothing about until a few hours ago.

  But Stark’s seed was still in her, his teeth had reddened her breasts, her fingernails had marked his shoulder, and she was alive! Thinking.

  “Let me up.”

  “Don’t run.”

  “Because you’ll stop me?”

  After a long and powerful gaze, he rolled onto his side, but the better part of a minute passed before she forced her legs under her. Once on her feet, she stared down at the naked man who’d tied her up and made her beg him to fuck her. His muscles crouched just beneath the surface, and although his cock was at rest, it would soon want her again.

  His cock had assumed ownership of her. It promised nothing but so much pleasure she wasn’t sure she’d survive her next climax.

  Did Stark want more from her than to spend the rest of her life on Cougar Mountain?

  Did he know?

  Shutting down the question, she focused on the unblinking four-legged beast above them.

  There’s no compromise to you, is there? she silently asked Cougar Spirit. All or nothing. Either I bend my will to what you want, or what, you’ll kill me?

  Not want, need.

  She nearly challenged Cougar Spirit to explain further, but her spent and trembling body had started to sing. Mountain air and heat flowed over her flesh to remind her of the hundreds, maybe thousands, of days she’d spent in the wilderness. The finest silk couldn’t match this sensation.

  And yet this moment was about more than air and heat because Cougar Mountain was home to deer and elk, trees and creeks, all of them vulnerable to man’s senseless and sometimes cruel attack.