by JL Madore
The hum of the voice on the other end had Bruin's anger and his volume ratcheting with each passing moment. He shook his head, a deep growl rumbling in his chest. "I don't care. Every fucking member!" He ended the call and cursed at the afternoon sky.
"What? What's happened?"
He turned to face me but waited until Trace joined us before he spoke. "A wolf pack is down and nobody can get a hold of the Cougar Prime or any of his den."
"Impossible," Trace said. "Who could possibly get to so many of us at once?"
"I have no clue, but I intend to find out." Bruin laced my fingers with his and spun toward the house. The sensation of ants crawling up my neck made me flinch. I froze, pulling back on Bruin's arm. The instant he saw my face he stiffened and backed me against the door of the SUV. Nostrils flaring, he leaned close. "What?"
"I'm not sure—"
The truck mirror beside my face shattered. A blinding heat exploded in my head as the world spun out of focus.
"Gun! I can't Flash. They've got a Pulse." Bruin wrapped himself around me. Another shot and glass pelted my shoulder and rained at my feet. Bruin pulled us to the front of the truck. "There's a fucking gun on my mate. Find it."
Trace tightened to my side, barking off commands. A second later, a living shield of men surrounded us. Someone pushed on my shoulders as I tried to rise.
"Stay low, Ursa."
"The shooter is in the rock formation above our position."
"Circle the house."
Bruin's arms stayed tight around me. We moved as a unit, running in a crouch, his growl rumbling in my chest as we swept toward the house. The moment we entered the bungalow, Cowboy and Savage pulled me from Bruin.
"Ursa secured," someone shouted and Bruin was gone.
We moved through the house in a blur and I landed behind the granite island in the kitchen before I could blink. Half a dozen men took up sentinel while Cowboy crouched next to me and gripped my arms.
"Where's Bruin?" I breathed, dazed and dizzy.
Cowboy touched the button on his earpiece. "I've got audio. Let's see to your injuries."
A piercing whistle above the island brought my attention to Savage as he passed a damp cloth and a white box down to Cowboy. With steady hands Cowboy worked a pair of long forceps and picked at the bits of glass lodged in my cheek. Piece by tiny, jagged piece.
Tilting me forward, he stared at my shoulder. "I need to take a look under the shirt."
I hated being fussed over, but let him slide my arm from my sleeve. He lifted my shirt off my back so he could get to my shoulder and continue harvesting. Plink. Plink. One after another, he dropped shards into a dish. When he wiped a swab dipped in antiseptic across my skin I pushed him away.
"All right, enough." I tried to get to my feet but my legs wouldn't hold my weight. "Stop with me and go help Bruin."
"Mika look at me. Mika!" Cowboy pulled me back down and brought his fingers into my view. I was stunned to see how much blood covered them. "You have one doozy of a head lac I haven't cleaned. Bruin will tan my hide and cut off my balls if I don't tend to you before runnin off. Now, sit still."
My mind whirled while Cowboy fiddled with every ointment and bandage in his little kit of torture. "What's taking so long?"
A shot rang out.
Strong hands came down on my shoulders as someone knelt behind me. By the way his body curled around mine I knew whoever it was, he was a big one. In the reflection of the stainless-steel dishwasher I saw Savage. Ebony gaze met mine and he curled his lip into a snarl.
"Alpha has the shooter pinned," Cowboy said, pressing his finger to his earpiece. "Lions are in position. Wait. There's a second shooter."
Another shot. My body shuddered. Savage's grip tightened.
"Stay where you are, Mika," Cowboy said, unaffected by my struggle to get up.
"But Bruin . . . he's out there. We should help him."
Savage said nothing. Cowboy said nothing.
I listened, wishing I had the heightened senses of the Weres.
"First shooter down." Cowboy said, focused on what he heard through his comm. He waited. We all waited. The tick tick tick of the clock on the wall grated at my last nerve. "Second shooter down. Securing the premises."
More waiting. "Clear. Stand down. The Alpha's mate is to remain secure."
Cowboy lifted me to my feet, then steadied me when I listed. "Sav, grab her a drink."
I heard the sharp pop of the tab and felt the mist of cool bubbles tickle my face as a can of 7-Up appeared in front of me. I sipped at it trying to focus.
Things had gone from bad to worse today and one thought spiralled through my mind. Bruin could be hurt. I needed to see him. I set down my drink and launched myself through the sea of men surrounding me. Out the glass doors and into the scorching afternoon heat. Cowboy and Savage stayed right on my heels.
"Give him a minute. Uh . . . Mika, wait." Cowboy grabbed my arm and jolted me to a halt. "You're out of your depths here, female. Trust me. You need to give him a minute."
Why didn't they want me to see him? Was he hurt? Was he shot again?
My stomach lurched as I pushed forward, the urgency to see him overpowering. It was easy to figure out where to go. I passed two lions and half a dozen dogs coming down from the rocks at the side of the house. They stood aside and lowered their gazes as I passed.
Cowboy cursed. "Mika, give him a chance to clean up and calm down. He's a bonded male in a rage. He won't be able to—"
I spun, fists clenched. "I will see that he's all right. I don't care if he's dirty or bloody or in a fit of fury. If I am his mate, then I am also your Queen and you will respect my wishes and stop trying to keep me from him."
Cowboy broke into a broad smile and stepped to the side. "As you wish."
As I came to a little plateau near the rock formation I heard the unmistakable huff and whine of a bear. Rounding the boulder, my breath caught. Bruin in bear form was more beautiful than I could describe. Unconscious in the cave he stunned me, but I had no sense of his strength or his majesty. Now, standing eye level in front of me, his massive heart-shaped face and golden eyes shook me to my very core.
"Bruin?"
He lumbered forward and pressed his forehead against my chest. I slid my fingers into his muzzle and scrubbed his cheek.
"Hey, big guy." I drank in his strength and size, trembling at how this powerful creature exuded Bruin's essence, yet felt different at the same time.
"It'll take him a minute to shift back." Cowboy shook his head, his voice laced with a trace of amusement. "When Weres are hurt or worked up we retreat into our base selves. His animal instincts will be raw and close to the surface even after he shifts. You should come with us and leave him to himself. You don't know what you're dealing with here."
I shook my head. "I'll be fine."
I didn't watch them go. I nuzzled my face into the fur of Bruin's neck and breathed him in. He smelled good. Pressed against his sturdy frame my skin tingled when he shifted back into a man. A very naked, very aroused man.
He moved with predatory grace and primal sexuality. My feet lifted off the ground. My clothes shredded beneath clawed fingers. Bruin's eyes remained solid gold.
His animal instincts will be raw and close to the surface.
I'd seen the advancing stages of his bear before—in the parking garage while he fought—but this was different. Strong fingers knotted in my hair and I gasped as my head jerked up to look at him. His mouth seized mine, his tongue prying my lips apart and penetrating.
My pulse thrummed through my bloodstream and drummed in my heart.
This was Bruin at his most basic. Bear and man.
When he drew back, his lips curled. "They shot at you. Tried to take my mate from me."
"I'm not your mate—" Electricity crackled in the air.
Before I could qualify my words, he grabbed my shoulders, spun me around and forced me toward a tree. I cried out, shock and arousal warring in my mind. My
palms splayed against the rough bark, steadying me against the trunk. "Bruin, what are you doing?"
"Tell me again you're not my mate." The masculine demand in his voice, held an edge that clenched in my womb. He gripped my hips and covered my back, his arousal trapped between us. His hand traced the curves of my chest as his lips brushed against my ear. "Deny me, Mika. Do it. It spikes my need to claim you, to cover you with my scent inside and out. It sends a powerful warning. Tells anyone stupid enough to come for you how they’ll be facing."
What did I do? This man—this beast was not Bruin. But I did know him. My body knew him—his presence, his possession—and responded. Blood coursed through my veins as my nipples tensed into peaks and my core wept.
Bruin inhaled sharply. "Careful. The man may be patient, but the animal wants what's his. I'm so damned hard for you it hurts."
A shiver chilled my bare skin. Part of me wanted everything he promised. At the same time, I was terrified of what it would mean to accept him. Two hundred and fifty pounds of sex and muscle tightened around me.
"I smell your need," he whispered, his words caressing my neck. "Even when you lie to us . . . I smell the truth. Mate."
Yes. "No. It's sexual. I want you. The other stuff . . . me being the Queen, I—"
"Fuck the other stuff," Bruin growled, breathing hard. He bent me forward, holding me in place, running a hand up my back. I couldn't think with him working his tongue down the column of my neck.
Struggling to breathe, I hesitated. Should I protest? Of course, I should. But I couldn't bring myself to make him stop. I didn't want him to. Rough palms took without invitation. His body, hard and muscled blanketed mine. My head fell forward as his hands travelled over my skin, working in downward strokes from my breast, down my belly, down until his fingers curled between my thighs. "I need inside you, Mika."
A cry slipped through my lips as my knees gave way.
Bruin caught my weight, holding me tight against him. His touch was undeniable. Pure, scalding pleasure. Bruin shifted his stance and filled me.
"You are mine," he growled, the guttural vibration baring no resemblance to Bruin's velvet timbre. His foot inside my ankle spread my legs wider as he adjusted behind me, thrusting deeper, driving harder. The clenching muscles of my sex tensed around him. His fingers stroked me, timing, pressure and his ability to read my body, all perfect. The building pressure of my release ratcheted nearer.
My nails dug at the mossy trunk, grasping for purchase to ride out this maelstrom. Bruin was a dominant man. His bear was downright aggressive.
A sharp scrape over my shoulder had my head turning. Bruin's canines had grown and he gripped the sensitive skin above my collarbone. He bit, not enough to break the skin, but enough to send a message. I am his. His face grew tight, savage with lust as he held me captive between his teeth. Watching me watch him, he bit down. White daggers punctured my flesh with a pleasure-pain that scattered my mind. He moaned as his eyes rolled closed.
I'd never felt—never experienced—anything so wildly out of control. Rapture exploded inside me, surged through me, higher, harder. The cry of his name tore from my chest. I was wrong. This was more than sex. This man, this animal . . . possessed me.
He took my body and wanted my soul.
As my orgasm gripped and released, his hips rolled, building from hard and fast to frenetic. Bruin's breathing hitched and caught in short bursts. He thrust inside me, growling, taking, worshipping in a never-ending glide of bodies. Breathing hard and dizzy as hell, I thought the pleasure might destroy me.
With one final growl, he pitched forward. Releasing his bite, he snarled so loud the echo bounced off the rocks and trees around us. When he collapsed, his heart pounded like a war drum against the bare skin on my back.
It took a few minutes for him to come down from his release and then for him to lift his weight. My legs felt like rubber, my entire body shaking, and Bruin's scent roared in my nostrils. I sensed when the bear receded and the man regained control. Gentle fingers stroked my shoulder, pausing over the sensitive tissue where he'd bitten me.
"Mika?" His voice fractured. "Oh, gods, what have I done?"
I tried to turn, but he held me in place.
"Don't." From behind me, he licked over the four pinpricks of blood from my shoulder and wiped the insides of my thighs. He flashed clothes on me and let my hair cascade down my back. "I . . . I'm sorry. Shit, Mika, I'm so, sorry. I never wanted to take your choice away. Gods, forgive me."
The warmth of his hands and the strength of his presence disappeared.
And I was mated.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It took half an hour after Bruin disappeared, until Kobi Flashed me to the storage room of an antique store. It was one of the Gatehouses, I'd been told, and the location of one of two dozen ancient Silvers used as Portal Gates. We stood in front of the Silver—a full length mirror, the size of my living-room wall—and waited for it to allow us access to a fantasy realm of Elves, Weres and Faeries. The Realm of the Fair.
I exhaled, no longer sure what was real.
Blinking back the sting burning behind my eyes, I quashed the memory of my sexplosion with Bruin on that plateau. What happened? Somehow my protestation had sealed the deal on my mating status. I never wanted to take your choice away. Forgive me.
Now I was mated and Bruin was AWOL.
His warrior brothers could downplay Bruin's absence all they wanted, but from what I gathered, no male just up and left his mate. Ever.
"Bet you wish you never went to Spankz that night, don't you?" Kobi asked.
Like I'd answer that. I ran a finger across the dark lead surface of the mirror and touched the heavy gold-gilded frame. "How does it work? I mean, where is your world in relation to say . . . Vancouver?"
Kobi nodded to the beefy guy hovering over the electronics panel. "The Realm of the Fair has pocketed areas of land on each of the continents. Hidden by magic, these areas offer a world which has remained essentially unchanged for millennia—Elves and Weres, witches and wizards, Centaurs and Sprights. When Mundanes—that's you—reach the borders of our realm, you are transported across to the opposite side in such a seamless motion you remain as clueless as ever."
"Does anyone in the modern realm know about yours?"
"Sure. We have Haven safe houses in all the major cities. There are also people of our world who choose to live in the Modern Realm over the Realm of the Fair."
"Why?"
He shrugged. "Anonymity. It's easier to come by in a world that doesn't know shit." Kobi's acerbic personality didn't fool me. The guy had lived through something bad, something that made him want to keep people at arm's reach.
"Why didn't Bruin and I go to a safe house when he was hurt? Because I'm human?"
"No. We have lots of humans. I'd guess it was more that you're not from our world. Bruin probably worried you'd be considered an exposure threat and he was too injured to protect you."
"Exposure threat? And if I was, what would happen?"
"Well, because your memories are traumatic, they can't be erased clean, so Savage, Cowboy or another Talon enforcer would have to put you down."
"Kill me?"
He shrugged. "It deters people from taking ads out in the local papers or in your case . . . writing an expose. But when the Enforcer killed you, Bruin would kill him. The Talon would then rank him as a threat and since we outnumber him, he'd be killed. Bad scene all the way around."
Allrighty. That explained Bruin's reaction when he found out I was a journalist. "Kobi, can you try Bruin's phone again."
The coldness in his charcoal eyes knotted my gut. Hell, it was bad enough that I had to come down from the plateau and face Bruin's men alone. Now I had to go to his home without him. What would Jade and Galan think? And the purple-eyed pixie would despise me even more for losing her brother. Layers of questions and intersections of reality pitched and whirled in my head like an out of control helicopter.
Kobi s
lipped his phone into his leather trench and shook his head. "Still turned off."
I stared at the mirror. How was I supposed to absorb any of this? I felt like Alice except I'd been mule-kicked down the rabbit hole and dragged around Wonderland by my hair. Give me a goddamn cookie so I can eat it and have my life back.
I swiped my cheek and my reflection followed suit. It seemed like a normal, old mirror, but after a few more cleansing breaths, its glassy depths rippled to life. Silver ribbons of light danced from the edges into and across the dark surface. The reflection strobed into the room in a blinding blue-white lightshow.
When the whole surface rippled, Kobi gripped my bicep and pulled us through the mirror. I expected to feel it, feel something as I crossed the threshold. After all, I was moving from one world to another. It was neither hot nor cold; there was no resistance, nor static in the air. It was like walking through an open doorway.
As we reached the other side, Kobi knuckle-bumped a striking black guy wearing khaki's and a navy Polo shirt. He didn't exude the same dominant, intimidating aggression that the other men did. Instead, he gave off a confident charisma. He was actually a very fit, clean-cut, and attractive guy.
"Hey Julian. Have you heard anything from your bro on this side?"
"Yeah. He stormed through in an absolute bitch, scowled, growled and Flashed without a word. I'd guess he took his bike out. What's up his ass, anyway?"
Kobi shrugged. "Mating madness or some shit. Oh, that reminds me, this is Bruin's lucky other half. Julian, this is Mika—Mika, this is Julian, Bruin's brother."
I kept my opinion about my mating status to myself. So far, by clarifying my point, I'd alienated Bruin's friends, gotten myself rutted by a territorial bear and lost all chance at choosing my future. "Nice to meet you."
Julian stood up from the desk and extended a hand. "Welcome to the family. We're dysfunctional at best, lethal at worst, but there's never a dull moment."
"And you're his brother?" The furthest thing from Bruin and his sisters I could have imagined, Julian was lean and preppy with intelligent, mint green eyes.