Ranger Drew (Shifter Nation: Werebears Of Acadia Book 4)

by Meg Ripley

  “Yeah,” he said, nodding slowly. “Neither of our Alphas are strictly speaking trustworthy at this point.” He glanced at her, smiling wryly. “Everyone seems to have ulterior motives.” Keira chuckled at the understatement. “So, you want to mate me. That’s news.”

  “I told you, shut up about that,” Keira said, her cheeks burning as the blood rushed into her face. “I had to tell Harold that, because he would have grabbed you otherwise.”

  “The day I can’t handle a panther…”

  “You couldn’t handle me,” Keira countered.

  “The day I can’t handle an old panther with a young panther at my side is the day I give up on being a wolf.” Keira rolled her eyes.

  “I couldn’t have defended you without marking you as my mate, without coming out about it,” Keira said. “I’d be going against my own kind for a stranger.”

  “So, you want to be my mate,” Raul said, his lips twitching with amusement.

  “That’s not—ooh,” Keira took a slow breath, closing her eyes. “I don’t want you to end up being killed—or hurt more than you already are—because Harold’s out for revenge,” Keira said. “That’s all.”

  “I didn’t know you cared,” Raul said, chuckling lowly. Keira heard the pleased, almost growling undertone in his voice. “I thought you wouldn’t ever mate someone who couldn’t best you in combat?”

  “And I won’t,” Keira said tartly. “That’s why it was just a maneuver. I can’t believe you’re taking it seriously.”

  “I could best you in combat,” Raul said. “Even now, as long as you fought fair, I could do it.” He pulled off of the surface street and onto the dirt road that led out to the safe house, and Keira opened the window a crack; she had the uncomfortable apprehension that Harold might have set someone to track them, that her Alpha might be more interested in getting what revenge he could for Lachlan than in waiting for full justice.

  “You couldn’t best me in combat on your best day,” Keira told Raul tartly. She sniffed at the air coming in from outside of the car, sorting through the scents even as she reached out with her mind. There was no sign of panther—and more importantly, in Keira’s thoughts, no sign of wolves either.

  “You want to test that theory?” Keira glanced at Raul. His hazel eyes glimmered with mischief.

  “You’re injured,” she told him tartly. “It wouldn’t be a fair fight.”

  “You aren’t challenging me, though,” Raul countered. “I’m challenging you. If I think I’m up to it, who are you to argue with me?” Keira stared at Raul and smiled slowly, shaking her head.

  “You want me to mate you,” she said, amused.

  “I just want to prove you can’t take me in a fair fight,” Raul said, shrugging.

  “If you go through with the challenge I’m not going to hold back,” Keira told him, looking him up and down. Raul chuckled.

  “If you did, I’d be disappointed in you as a shifter and a panther both,” he told her. He shut the car off and opened the driver’s side door, and Keira, tingling all over, unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out of the passenger side seat as well.

  “Are you seriously challenging me?” Keira looked at Raul doubtfully, able to picture each of the wounds on his body that she had cleaned and dressed only hours before. Shifters healed quickly, but it was difficult for her to credit the possibility that Raul was actually recovered enough to fight her. “Because I mean, the last time we battled, you weren’t even injured and I almost had you.” Her heart beat faster in her chest, and the animal part of her consciousness began to rise to the fore. Keira could feel the magic of the transformation crackling along her bones, through her veins.

  “I think you’re worried I’ll show you up,” Raul said. He reached down and tugged the hem of his tee shirt up, hauling the fabric along his torso and over his head. “Then you’ll have to mate me, by your own rules.”

  “I just don’t want to kill you,” Keira said.

  “So then don’t kill me,” Raul told her. He smirked. “Make me submit, if you can.” He began unbuttoning the fly of his jeans, and Keira went to work on her own clothes, quickly discarding them. She could feel her nerves tingling, her body preparing itself for the transformation. She could still see where some of the injuries on Raul’s body were healing; they had mostly closed up, but Keira knew that he was almost certainly in at least a little pain.

  “You’re an idiot,” she told him, sinking down into a crouch, ready to begin the transformation. “I’m going to pin you and then you’re going to make me feel bad about it because you’ll be all bloody and injured.” Raul snorted, sinking onto his knees.

  “Just take it seriously,” he told her, his hazel eyes dancing with pride and mischief. “I don’t want to think that I only beat you because you were less than your usual strength out of pity.”

  “Fine,” Keira said. She willed the change onto herself and shuddered as her bones began to shift and move inside of her body. She didn’t pay any attention to Raul for the moment, absorbed in the transformation working its way through her body; she felt the fur sliding through her skin, the way her skull flattened, stretched, moved inside of her, her teeth elongating. She felt her fingertips changing, her hands turning into paws, claws sliding out of her skin.

  In moments, the transformation was complete, and Keira rolled on the ground, twisting and stretching. She looked around and saw the lupine shape of Raul a few feet away from her. In the part of her mind that was still human, Keira had to admit that Raul made an impressive—and impressively large—wolf, that by any standard he was formidable, even injured.

  Keira let out a long, low growl, slinking and sidling. She could remember fighting Raul before; but there was a different feeling behind their confrontation now. In part, it was due to the fact that Keira knew that she didn’t actually want to harm Raul; their sparring was a power play, not a true life-or-death fight. Raul replied to her growl with a full-throated howl, throwing his head back, and then they both began circling each other. In spite of her competitive, proud words only moments before, Keira felt doubt swimming to the surface of her mind; she didn’t want to hurt Raul. The animal part of her consciousness recognized what they were doing—the ritual behind their circling, the sparring that they would engage in as soon as one of them was ready to make the first strike—and she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go through with it.

  Raul lunged first, turning sharply and launching himself at her, growling in a way that Keira immediately recognized as non-threatening. Keira feinted, slipping away from Raul’s range, twisting under his lunge. She pushed the human part of her mind back, and threw herself into the fight, acting and reacting, falling into Raul’s rhythm, following his movements.

  The battle between them ebbed and flowed; Keira threw herself at Raul, targeting the parts of his body that weren’t already injured. She tried to trip him up, tried to knock him over, tried to get underneath him and send him sprawling. In return, Raul lunged and turned and twisted, ramming her with his shoulder, colliding with her. They tumbled to the ground together, first one on top and then the other, growling and purring and barking playfully. Keira’s whole body was awake and alive with a mixture of competitive fury and almost unwilling desire as the battle between them intensified.

  Keira felt herself beginning to tire, and realized that Raul was starting to stumble and stagger. Panting, the human part of her mind smiled and she looked for her opening; when Raul staggered in the midst of a feint out of her range, she twisted, lunging for his hindquarters.

  Keira felt her legs go out from under her and shrieked in surprise as momentum carried her to her side and then her back. In an instant, Raul was on top of her, growling in a low, steady, playful tone, his mouth on her throat—but not bearing down even slightly. Keira struggled, but she was incapable of knocking Raul off of her body, or budging his weight from her center of gravity; she was inextricably pinned.

  Keira struggled for a moment longer, but it was clear that
Raul had tricked her, that he had managed to actually pin her. She growled and relaxed underneath him, signaling her submission.

  ****

  Raul let Keira’s throat drop from his mouth and pulled back, willing the transformation to ripple through his body once more. He felt his bones shifting and changing inside of his skin, the muscles twisting and moving, colors coming up in his eyes that he hadn’t been able to see before. Underneath him, Keira trembled and shivered as her own change worked through her body, and fur disappeared, only to be replaced by beautiful, breathtaking naked skin.

  As his mouth assumed human shape once more, Raul licked his lips. “I pinned you,” he said, his voice still rippling with a wolfish growl. “I won the contest.”

  “You cheated,” Keira countered.

  “I did not cheat,” Raul insisted. He stared down into her eyes intently, torn between amusement and annoyance. “I used strategy.” Raul buried his face against her neck, growling lowly. “Just like you did when you went for me at my weakest-seeming point.”

  “You just…” Raul nipped sharply at Keira’s throat—a mixture of dominant threat and affection—and she moaned, her body heating up against his. “You just want to mate me.”

  “Maybe I do,” Raul murmured against her skin. “Maybe I want to take you as my mate and mark you and tell everyone you’re all mine.” His cock was already rock-hard, his arousal white hot, flowing through his veins. From the moment that Keira had mentioned fighting for dominance, the challenge that she required from her mate, Raul’s lust for the shifter female had built up inside of him.

  “Why?” Keira looked up at him in confusion, and Raul smiled slowly, pulling back to hold her gaze.

  “You wanted to hold out for the male who could best you in combat,” Raul said. Keira nodded, shrugging slightly in admission. “I’ve been holding out for the female who is a match for me.” He brushed his lips against hers, nipping her bottom lip. “You can’t tell me that you don’t feel it, Keira.” Raul nuzzled Keira’s neck, breathing in the scent of her pheromones. The heady musk of her arousal filled his nose, vying with the stable scent that clung to her at all times, spurring a deeper arousal in Raul’s body.

  “I feel it,” Keira said, her voice low, almost purring. “But we—should we…”

  “Absolutely,” Raul told her. He touched her everywhere, forgetting the pain from his wounds, forgetting everything but the desire—the need—to take Keira. “We absolutely should. You need to make good on what you told your Alpha, don’t you?” He rocked his hips against hers; Raul shuddered at the feeling of Keira’s soaking wet labia brushing against his erection. “Submit to me, Keira. Let me take you.”

  For a moment, Keira lie beneath him, tense and uncertain, even with the arousal pheromones radiating from her body filling his nose. Then she relaxed against him, her pupils dilating, her heart fluttering at the pulse point in her neck. “Neither of our clans is going to be happy with us.”

  Raul leaned in and claimed Keira’s lips with his own, kissing her hungrily. He nipped and nibbled at her bottom lip, growling lowly as his hands trailed all over her body. Keira’s arousal intensified moment by moment, and Raul felt his own desire rising to meet it. In moments, the air was thick with their pheromones, and Raul could barely hold himself back from thrusting into her just as she was, lying underneath him, her soaking wet folds tantalizingly close.

  “Say it,” Raul said, pulling back enough to look down into Keira’s eyes. “Say it, you know you want to.” Keira panted, her hips twisting and shifting underneath him, her body pressed against his, and Raul clenched his teeth to hold the animal part of his consciousness at bay.

  “Take me as your mate,” Keira said, her voice tight with desire. “I submit to you.”

  Raul lifted himself off of Keira’s body, his hands trembling slightly from pent-up desire. He kissed her throat, her breasts, nuzzling against Keira and marking her all over with his scent. He kissed a path down from her full, lush breasts and along her abdomen, breathing in her heady aroma, growling low in his throat, the urge for possession coiling the muscles in his body, driving out some of his most human impulses.

  He spread her legs wide at the hip, and Raul nipped sharply at Keira’s inner thigh. You have to do this right, he told himself, taking a quick, deep breath. It wasn’t enough to mouth her, to deliver the marking bite; he had to bring Keira to a height of pleasure that she hadn’t experienced with any other partner. He had to make her truly and completely submit to him, give into him, bond with him.

  Raul buried his face against Keira’s soaking wet pussy, nuzzling his lips and cheeks against her, his tongue darting out to taste her fluids. He sucked and licked, devouring her, drinking down Keira’s arousal as if it were honey. Keira’s body came to life underneath him, electric; her hands closed on his head, on his shoulders, her fingers tangling in his hair, and Raul smiled to himself as he heard her moaning out, the sound cut through with her distinctive panther growling purr.

  Raul teased Keira relentlessly, worshipping her with his lips and tongue. Spurred by instinct, he brought her to the edge of orgasm again and again, flicking his rough-edge tongue against her clitoris and then darting down to the well of her pussy, sucking and licking along her inner labia as Keira pitched and arched in reaction. Raul could feel, could sense Keira’s pleasure mounting, the tension building between her hips as he worshipped her.

  When he knew that Keira couldn’t take even a moment more of teasing, Raul pulled back, licking his lips clean of all traces of her fluids, and quickly reached underneath her to flip her onto her stomach. Keira growled and purred, lifting her hips, rising up onto her elbows and knees on the grass, presenting her body to him, submitting to his dominance.

  Animal instinct, coiled deep inside of Raul’s body and mind, sprung free, and he covered her body with his own, lining his hips up with the curve of Keira’s ass. She spread her legs wider, and Raul reached down between their bodies, guiding the tip of his cock up against her soaking wet folds. He thrust into her all at once, filling her up in a single movement, and Keira cried out in pleasure, pushing her hips back to take him deeper.

  Raul began moving immediately, thrusting deeper and deeper inside of Keira’s body. He held her hip with one hand and balanced himself on the other, pressing his face between her shoulders, growling and moaning as his own pleasure mounted. He held himself back, feeling Keira’s body, reading her reactions as they moved together as one. He knew she was getting closer and closer to orgasm; he knew that if he was going to take her as his mate—really take her, truly mark her—he had to do the right thing at precisely the right moment. Raul kissed along Keira’s spine, lapping the sweat from her skin, feeling the ripple of her inner muscles tightening in convulsive spasms around his achingly hard cock.

  Raul knew the precise moment when Keira reached her orgasm; he groaned, bringing his mouth up to the nape of Keira’s neck, struggling to maintain his self-control as her body tightened around him. She gave into the orgasm, moaning and purring, and Raul continued to thrust hard and fast into her, riding the wave of her climax for several moments. Finally—when he felt the panther underneath him reach the peak of her orgasm—Raul opened his mouth, sinking his teeth in the nape of her neck carefully. Keira cried out, shuddering against him, and Raul tasted her blood on his tongue.

  It was too much for Raul to hold back any longer; he released Keira’s neck and threw his head back as wave after wave of pleasure washed through him in crackling jolts. He howled, proclaiming his ownership, his mastery of the woman he had taken, to the world at large, the call of a wolf claiming his mate. For several moments that felt like an eternity, Raul howled again and again as his climax continued, his cock twitching as his come flooded out of his body and into hers. When the last of the spasms began to abate, he collapsed against her, panting and gasping for breath, pleasure still dancing along his nerves throughout his body. For better or worse, she is fully mine now, he thought idly, as the haze of his ple
asure wiped out the last of his ability to think.

  ****

  Keira came back to herself bit by bit, aware of the lingering ache in her neck, the full, tender feeling along her labia, the faint pain deep down between her hips. She smiled to herself, fidgeting slightly underneath Raul’s body, and felt him slide off of her with a groan, sinking onto the grass where their battle had brought them. You actually let a man take you. You let a wolf take you. It was beyond Keira’s ability to believe; she had known that she would eventually take a mate, but from her first awakenings to sexual desire, she had always thought that it would be a panther—one of her own kind, someone she could trust.

  “How’s your neck?” Keira shivered at the feeling of Raul’s fingertips tracing the place where he’d marked her with his teeth; she felt a thrill of pleasure, a deep, animal impulse that she couldn’t reason away or suppress.

  “It hurts like hell,” Keira replied. She turned her head to look at Raul with a smile. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.”

  “We reek of each other,” Raul informed her. “When we go to the elementals, they’re going to know right away that we’re mated.”

  “They’ll know, the panthers will know, the wolves will know,” Keira shrugged. “We’ll be lucky if they aren’t all fighting over who gets to put us to death first.”

  “The elementals won’t want to,” Raul told her firmly. “They’ll want us to unite the two clans, make the peace.”

  “Convenient,” Keira said, smiling wryly. “Seeing as how that’s what we’re trying to do.”

  “I personally am not a fan of dying for that,” Raul told her. He reached out, and Keira didn’t even try to fight the feeling of comfort and contentment that rose inside of her that came along with his tight embrace, the sensation of his arms coiled around her waist, his body pressed to hers. “We need to take a shower and get dressed, and then we need to meet with the elementals.”