I stood up and reached into my closet to get pants. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d worn clothes, but considering how often my dick was hard around the insane female, I needed something to at least pretend to hide it from her. I yanked them on and then turned around to glare at her.
“We’re not getting hitched. I hadn’t checked that email in months. I didn’t know Beatrix was sending someone and I neither need nor want a wife anymore.”
Genuine pain flitted over her expression for a second before she blinked it away. Every instinct in me demanded I comfort her, and it took extreme effort to fight it.
“Doesn’t matter what you want now,” she snapped, “I’m here and I’m staying. Get used to it, bear.”
I was under no delusions about myself. I knew I was scruffy looking, my bear was unmanageable, and I was a grumpy pain in the ass on a good day. Why in the world would a woman as hot as her want to be anywhere near me? She could have men lining up around the corner to date her. What the hell?
I pondered for a moment. She’d called bear ‘cute’… and she knew about shifters. Maybe she was some sort of shifter groupie. I could show her that bear wasn’t cute, and neither was I. It could work. I’d scare her into leaving. I grabbed her arms and pulled her up to face me. Instead of looking scared, though, she just grinned at me and rested her hands on my bare chest.
“Why aren’t you afraid of me?”
“Because I’ve suffered abuse at the hands of a man. I know all about abusive men, and you, Matt Long, aren’t one.”
This time, I couldn’t fight instinct; I wrapped my arms around her and held her tighter. “Someone hurt you?” I growled into her neck.
She shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I’m here now. Thanks to Beatrix and her Buxom Beauties. What made you choose a mail order bride service, anyway? You have a thing for buxom ladies?”
Fuck. She was teasing me and all I could think about was sliding my dick into her. I looked between us, at the space where my flannel shirt on her gaped open and her tits pressed firmly against my chest, and licked my lips. It’d been too long.
“You’re poking a stick at a sleeping grizzly, lady.”
She somehow managed to wiggle her body even closer to me. “What are you going to do?”
“Who are you?”
“Your mate.”
I jerked away from her and glared. “What the fuck do you know about mates?”
“I lived with a family of gators a while back. I heard stuff about mates.”
Gators? I grabbed her and swung us both around until her back connected with the wall behind her. I put my forearm across her chest and held her there. “Who the fuck sent you?”
Her eyes grew panicked and she pulled uselessly at my arm. “Stop it, Matt. No one sent me.”
I stayed where I was and glared at her. “Tell me.”
Tears filled her eyes and as she stretched her neck away from me, I saw bruises on her delicate skin. I moved my arm, but gently placed my fingers over the bruises. Looking over her neck, I spotted teeth marks from someone biting her. I cursed and moved across the room. “Are you already mated? What the fuck is going on?”
CHAPTER 7: Matt
My bear roared and fur sprouted along my body. Fury like I’d never felt before overwhelmed me until I had to throw my head back and shake the cabin with a massive roar. When I looked back at her, she was already recomposed with her hands on her hips.
“My ex tried to claim me as his mate. It didn’t work, though, because I’m not his true fucking mate. He just... bit me. After the first time, I guess he was humiliated, so he just kept trying. He was insane. This will fade. I’m not bonded to anyone.”
Her explanation just pissed my bear off even more. “He hurt you?” What kind of an asshole would do something like that?
She surprised me by walking towards me, facing my anger, despite the slight tremble in her hands. “If you’ll sit down and talk to me, I’ll tell you the whole story.”
Not even my brothers would dare to face me when I was in one of my moods. Here was this small human woman challenging me. My bear wanted her. Bad. He wanted me to claim her. But, I was in no shape to be anyone’s mate. Besides, from the way it sounded, she’d already been through too much to have to put up with my crazy wayward bear, or my crazier human. “I’m not sure any of this is a good idea.”
She crossed her arms and stared up at me. “I had planned on just coming here and hiding out for a bit before I left again. That’s all changed now, though. Now I’m staying and you’re going to have to deal with me. Whether you like it or not.”
“Look, lady, I’m not looking for a wife. That ship has already sailed. Right into the fucking bottom of the ocean. So, that’s a no go.”
“What happened?”
I looked down at her big green eyes and felt myself waver. It wasn’t the first time since she’d shown up that I’d felt this, but it was definitely the strongest the pull towards her had been. I could have fallen apart right in front of her like a little child whining and complaining about the way things had turned out after my dad died. About the way I hadn’t ever told him how important the ranch was to me, or how grateful I’d been to have such a wonderful father. What a fucking bitch I was being. “This isn’t happening. I’ve got to go.”
She stepped to the side and ushered me out. “Go ahead, do your bear thing. I’ll be here when you get back.”
Instead of arguing, I stepped around her and walked to the front door. I dared a glance back over my shoulder at her, at the marks on her neck, and then left. I didn’t need anything else on my plate. She deserves to be with a man who can help her through her troubles. I couldn’t help her. I couldn’t even help myself.
I ran through the woods, turning bear as I went, and headed straight to my brother’s place. He was mated and I needed to know what level of hell I’d fallen into. There had to be a way to get out of it, and I was certainly going to try.
CHAPTER 8: Leila
I fell asleep in his bed that night, frustrated and hurt. I knew the hurt was stupid, because I’d just met the big idiot, but I couldn’t help it. Every time he denied it and acted as though I wasn’t his mate, it felt like a little piece of my heart was being trampled. I just wanted to talk to him and explain things, maybe even tell him that my name wasn’t Maggie. Instead, I was alone in his cabin.
The next two days I spent waiting for him to return. Still no sign of him. My hurt had transformed into anger and I was ready to rip him a new one, giant grizzly bear or not.
I’d had my fair share of pacing the cabin alone, so I decided to visit the rodeo that I’d heard about on my trip into town to get a few more things. Normal rodeos didn’t start until March or April, but shifters didn’t feel the cold the same way that humans did, so they started their rodeo in cold as shit February.
I dressed in jeans, boots, one of Matt’s flannels, and a sweatshirt of his. I let my hair do its natural wild tangle of curls around my head before heading outside.
I stood next to the truck for a second and looked around. I couldn’t see Matt, but I knew he was there. I could sense him close by. “Hey, asshole! I’m taking your truck and I’m going to the rodeo. Maybe I’ll meet a nice guy and bring him back here, since you’re not living here anymore. You won’t mind, right?”
A low growl sounded from the trees but I just climbed into his truck and headed towards town. Either he’d show up or he wouldn’t. I had a feeling he would, though.
I’d been to rodeos before. I’d grown up in Georgia and there’d been plenty of cowboys running around. Sitting down in the small stadium seats in Landing, though, felt different. People shied away from me and no one seemed inclined to start a conversation. Hell, even if I’d been serious about finding a man there, it would’ve been damned near impossible since everyone treated me as though I were a leper. Landing residents were even less trusting than I was.
I didn’t let it get to me and instead, enjoyed the show. About halfway throug
h, I sensed Matt. I could feel him when he showed up. The whole crowd seemed to go still and when I looked over, he was standing at the end of my row of seating, fully dressed and looking about as delicious as a man could possibly look.
He was dressed in jeans and a flannel. He’d shaved to reveal a chiseled jawline, and he’d cut his hair. He looked incredibly edible, instead of like the wild man I’d first met. He slowly made his way over to me and sat down stiffly avoiding eye contact and staring straight ahead. “You took my favorite shirt and my truck.”
I stood up and started shrugging out of his coat. “Hold this. I’ll just take this off and you can have it back. No harm done.”
Matt grabbed me and pulled me back down. “Keep your fucking clothes on, woman.”
“Leila. My name is Leila.”
He snapped his head in my direction and frowned. “You said your name was Maggie. The emails said your name is Maggie. What’s the deal?”
I ignored him and reached up to run my fingers through his shorter hair instead. “You clean up real nice, cowboy. I won’t lie and say that I didn’t like the wild look, but this is hot as Hades.”
He glared down at me. “Why do you insist on antagonizing me?”
Seeing him show up for me emboldened me. I leaned up and nipped at his earlobe. “Because negative attention from you is better than no attention at all.”
Matt’s hand landed on my thigh and he squeezed. “I don’t have a lot of control, Leila. I haven’t been out in a while.”
Over the show, and over pretending like I wanted anything more than for him to handcuff me to his bed, I stood up and looked down at him. “Let’s go home, then. I’ll tell you everything on the way and then, when we get there, you can punish me for being a bad girl and telling you that my name was Maggie.”
He looked like he wanted to argue, but I’d worked his nerves enough that he didn’t. “This is a bad idea.”
I caught his hand and grinned. “Fine then. You can call me Maggie and I’ll be your good little school girl. Whatever you want. Just take me home, bear.”
CHAPTER 9: Matt
I sped up the mountain like the idiot I was. I kept telling myself that I needed to stay away from her, she deserved better than some fuck up with a broken bear, but no matter how many times I said it to myself, I couldn’t escape her. She was like kryptonite. I’d spent two days hiding in the woods to avoid her, while never straying more than fifty feet from her, except the vague chat with my brother.
I spent two days sleeping on a pile of leaves to keep myself from being in the cabin with. I was afraid of making some dumb mistake. Like claiming her. My bear wanted nothing more than to sink his teeth into her beautiful flesh and mark her so the world would know who she belonged to. Bear was relentless, too. He knew she belonged to us. He was pissed at me for hiding from her.
That wasn’t that unusual, though. I’d spent years with my bear pissed at me, but I was in control then. I’d spent way too much time in an office, focused on money, and bear had eventually stopped talking to me. It was only in the months after dad died when I’d been avoiding everyone had bear started coming out again. And when he showed up again, he did so with a vengeance. He no longer accepted being pushed down and ignored and I had to appease him by suppressing the human form for months before we came to somewhat of a truce. I was still broken, but my bear didn’t hate me anymore and I’d gotten better and faster at the shift than I ever had been.
My bear definitely wasn’t quiet now as I swerved around a car that was going too slow and pushed on the gas pedal even harder. He was as eager to claim his mate as I was to be alone with Leila.
I shot a look over at her. She was slipping out of the jacket she’d been wearing. “What are you doing?”
She grinned. “Getting undressed. Are you going to ask me any questions?”
I tried to focus on the road but it was damned near impossible. I had to ask her about her name, though. I needed to find out who the hell she really was. “Who are you?”
She started unbuttoning the flannel and turned to face me. “Leila Harold. Born and raised in Peachpit, Georgia. I spent the last couple of years on a compound full of gator shifters. I dated the wrong guy and ended up getting trapped. After I knew what they were, Steven wouldn’t let me go. Last month, I stole lots of his money while he was away on business and escaped. I was on the run when I found Beatrix and her Buxom Beauties. I gave her half of that money so I could pretend to be Maggie and have a way out of the south and a place to lay low for a while.”
I stopped the truck in the middle of the road and slowly turned to face her. “What?”
“Yeah. Me ending up at your doorstep was a fluke. I had no clue you were going to be a shifter or that we’d have any kind of connection. I wasn’t even planning on sticking around for longer than I had to.”
“He held you captive?” My blood boiled and I felt the urge to rip something apart with my bare hands. I punched the dash, cracking the heavy plastic, and then pulled my hands down my face roughly. It was still hard to control my anger these days. “Where is he?”
She shrugged her shoulder and my shirt slid down, revealing a smooth satiny shoulder. The marks were faded and I knew in a few more days, they’d be completely gone. “I don’t know. Probably looking for me down there somewhere. I’m sure he’s pissed and wants to kill me. He can’t trace me, though. Beatrix was the only person who knew where I ended up and she said that she was closing up shop and moving to California to be near her grandkids after I gave her the money.”
I felt myself starting to turn and held on tight to the steering wheel willing bear to stay buried inside. Leila scooted over next to me and wrapped her arms around my neck. She was too close. She could get hurt if I couldn’t control bear and stop the shift. “Get back!”
She just tightened her grip and pressed her mouth against the side of my neck. “No. You’re okay.”
My bear instantly settled and my dick turned to stone. I sucked in a big breath and turned to face her. A human female with that much power over me wasn’t something I’d ever thought possible, but here she was. “You’re going to tell me all about this ex later.”
“After,” she grinned.
I started driving again. “After.”
She visibly shuddered and undid another button on the shirt. I hadn’t planned on letting things between us get this far, but hearing her threaten to bring another man home had enraged me. Bear was crazy and demanded that I claim her so she couldn’t. I was still at odds with bear on most things and had to fight him the entire way to the rodeo. He wanted to run there and scoop her up. He believed her fully and knew that she was our mate. I was slower on the take. The more I sat next to her, though, and the more I felt the connection. I was a goner. The only reason we weren’t already pulled over on the side of the road, was because I hadn’t been with a woman in a long while and I was slightly worried about hurting her.
I slid the truck into its spot in front of my house and pulled Leila out with me through the driver’s side. She squealed as I did and then wrapped all of her limbs tightly around me.
I pushed open the cabin door and then kicked it shut before carrying her over to the bed and dropping her on it. After I did, I backed away and sat at the kitchen table, facing her. I needed a second to calm down or I would hurt her.
“Come here.”
I shook my head. I was nervous. My brother, Alex, had tried to convince me that having a mate was the best thing that ever happened to him, but I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t know this woman. Hadn’t even known of her existence a few days ago. How could I trust what seemed like such a good thing when everything in my life had turned to shit?
She stood up and slowly unbuttoned her shirt before opening and revealing that she wore nothing underneath. Her bare breasts called to me and my mind went blank. How the fuck was I supposed to question something like that?
She tossed the shirt at my head and then grinned at me. “Come, bear. I want to
play.”
I was on my feet in nanoseconds, moving to her. “You’re a tease.”
“I don’t tease. You’re the tease. You hid from me and only came out when I threatened to bring another guy back here.”
I growled low in my throat and reached for her. When she sidestepped me and all I got was a wisp of her hair, I moved faster and caught her in my arms with her back to my chest. “No other guys. Ever again.”
She wiggled her body against my dick and laughed. “You’re fast.”
“It’s the bear. When you run, it increases the need to chase.” I buried my nose in her hair and breathed her in, delicious. I had a sweet tooth, like most bear shifters, and her vanilla scent with an underlying hint of honey was scrumptious.
“So, if I ran, you’d chase?” She dropped out of my grip and then sprinted out of the front door.
My dick hardened even more, even though it hardly seemed possible. I sprinted after her, feeling a need for her that surpassed any I’d ever felt before. She circled the side of the house and raced through the back yard, heading towards the woods. I cut her off and she ran back towards the front of the house. I kept close enough that she could feel me closing in, but I didn’t grab her until she was just outside of the front door.
She turned to see how close I was and I was on her. I tackled her to the floor of the cabin, spinning to make sure she landed on top of me. “Got you.”
Her wild laugh was like cupid’s arrow to the chest. I rolled us so that she was under me and then I kissed her to stifle it. Except, the plan backfired because feeling her lips on mine dug the arrow in even deeper. I was fucked.
CHAPTER 10: Leila
I opened my mouth to Matt’s kiss and gave as good as he was giving. He tasted like wild berries and horny man and it drove me a little crazy. I ran my hands through his hair and held him to me, desperate for more.
Rancher Bear Complete Series: PLUS NEW BONUS BOOK: Rancher Bears' Merry Christmas Page 7