She raced down the road and cut through the woods to Dunlap Homestead. She slunk through the trees until Boyd and Aiken left for work. Then she dodged behind the house to the bungalow Foicks shared with his brothers.
Jana answered her knock. He didn’t look even slightly surprised to see her. Maybe Foicks told his brothers about her last night. Pretty soon, the whole Dunlap tribe would know Foicks mated with Haven Farrell.
“Is Foicks home?” she asked.
Jana shook his head. “He left first thing this morning. He went to Dodd Homestead to meet Rhys and their friends.”
Haven groaned. “Oh, no.”
She ran off without thanking him or saying good-bye. Bruins started doing some strange things when they found their mates. Hopefully Jana would understand.
Chapter 13
Foicks went from one parked truck to the next. He checked every box and crate hidden under the tarps in a big shed behind Dodd Homestead. He watched to make sure the guys secured the ropes after he finished. “That’s good. Can we keep these trucks loaded until we’re ready to move?”
“We can keep ‘em loaded ‘til kingdom come if you want to,” Rhys replied. “We’ve got all these trucks allocated to the invasion. Won’t nobody come a-knocking wanting them back.”
“Good,” Foicks replied. “Now, I’ll need you and Dax working together with your teams while I’m gone. You’ll have to keep up your maneuvers and your training schedule. You won’t have me on your tails making sure you do it. Can you handle that?”
Rhys’s mouth twisted into a hideous grin. “We can handle it. Just don’t take too long before you call us up. Life is too short.”
“Don’t worry about that. The sooner I get there, the sooner I can get the NightShade on board. Then we can move.”
He turned the other way and his arm shot out to point across the shed when he stopped dead in his tracks. Haven stood in the doorway. The other guys retreated before her and disappeared into the woodwork.
Haven stared at him with big eyes. “What are you doing?”
He snatched her hand and guided her out of the shed. “What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here at a time like this.”
She spun around to face him. “I asked you a question. What are you doing here?”
“You can see what I’m doing. I’m consolidating my authority over this faction. We have to get our battle preparations in order, and we have to plan my trip with Ash to Renegade Ridge. You know all that.”
She straightened up. “So you’re going, even when you know I don’t want you to? What was all that we talked about yesterday? Was that just a lot of nice talk about us being together?”
“I have to go. You know that. This has nothing to do with how I feel about you. I have to take care of this. Then we can be together.”
She started to argue back, but Foicks noticed some of the guys watching them. He took her hand and led her farther from the shed. He stopped where the trees clustered to form the woods.
Haven rounded on him. The words rushed out of her so fast she tripped over her own tongue. “Listen to me, Foicks. You have to stop this war business right now.”
His eyebrows went up. “Why? What’s the big deal?”
“My brother Easton is on his way here right now to join the war faction. This thing has gone way too far. Even children are playing war games and pretending to fight the Midnight.”
“Good,” Foicks replied. “Maybe they’ll join us, too. The more, the better.”
“I don’t want Easton involved,” she told him. “I don’t want anybody involved, especially not you. Look, Foicks. I care about you. I don’t want to see anybody I care about hurt in this, and I care about you too much not to try to stop you. You have to put a stop to this before Bruins start getting killed.”
“I can’t quit now,” he replied. “I’m the one solely responsible for getting this faction together, and now everything is finally ready. Those guys in there won’t quit, and I don’t want to give up anyway. I want to fight as much as they do. I want to go to Renegade Ridge. I want to do it all.”
“You want to do it all?” Haven asked. “You can do it all, but you can’t do it all with me. You have to choose. It’s me or this war. You can’t have both.”
He held up both hands. “Now that’s not fair. You can’t demand I give it up.”
“I can, and I am. You want me to believe you love me? You want me to believe you want to stay here and be happy with me? Then you have to stop this petty conflict now. You have to stay on Bruins’ Peak and forget all about the NightShade and the Midnight and all of it. You have to convince the rest of these people to drop it, too. That’s the only way I’ll believe you really care about me as much as I care about you.”
He growled under his breath. He turned his back on her and started to walk away, but when he got next to the last tree, he stopped. He muttered and shook his head, but he couldn’t walk out there. He couldn’t walk away from her, no matter how much he wanted to. “You can’t do this to me. You can’t ask me to give up everything I’ve worked for.”
She came up behind him. She laid both hands on his shoulders and breathed against his back. “I need you. I need you here, with me, not running across the country after some phantom. The NightShade and the Midnight will never know you were there. They’ll never see you. They don’t care if you made all these preparations.”
He scanned the sheds and the men moving around the yard. “I’ll know. I’ll know in my heart I let them down.”
“What about me? What will it do to you to know you let me down?”
He closed his eyes. He couldn’t think about that. He couldn’t hold these two things in his mind at the same time, and he couldn’t abandon one in favor of the other.
She slipped her arms around his waist. She whispered so low he could hardly hear her, “Look at me, Foicks. Face me.”
She turned him around, but he wouldn’t open his eyes to look at her. She’d already won. He couldn’t resist those hands, and she turned him around so he showed his back to the sheds and the yard. He’d already turned away from his project and his faction. He had nothing left but her.
She cradled his face in her hands, and her cool lips touched his forehead. They left their sweet footprints on his eyelids and his cheeks until they found their way to his mouth.
He clasped her wrists in his meaty paws, but he couldn’t pry those hands off his face. He collapsed into her embrace. He couldn’t fight it. Not all the strength in the world could wrench him away from her.
She kissed him until his arms circled her waist. He straightened up and lifted her feet off the ground, and still their mouths held them together. Nothing could separate them. He set her on her feet, and they stuck together tighter than ever.
She put her head on one side, and their mouths slotted together, never to come apart. Her tongue touched his, and lightning shot through his guts to his prick. His blood rushed to his cock. That pull commanded him stronger than anything he ever knew before. He barely choked out the words, “I can’t do this.”
She pressed her breasts against his chest. “Come away with me. Leave all this behind. They’ll be all right without you. Come on. Let’s go off together.”
His eyes popped open. “Do you really want me to quit? You really want me to leave all this behind?”
She took his hand and drew him into the trees. The leaves blocked out the sun. The forest whispered its dark mysteries into his brain, but he couldn’t stop following her. She led him farther and farther away. The shed and everything and everyone in it receded to nothing until he could barely remember them.
Her eyes bewitched him. He could only stare at her face. Where was she leading him? He already knew she was leading him to his doom. Once he went with her, he would never go back. He would be hers, body and soul.
She stopped somewhere in the dark woods. She came close to him, and her body spoke to that boiling blood pounding between his legs. Her breasts heaved with her bre
ath. His arms ached to surround her, to grasp those breasts and hear her sob in sweet desire.
She raised her face to his. She whispered through her full lips. “Right here. Right now. I want to.”
He searched her eyes. Right here? Right now? She wanted him. She wanted to mate with him, right here in the woods. What a bear she was! Only a bear would want to do it like this, on the bare ground. Her wild passion blasted his world apart. He couldn’t stand against it. His own desire matched hers. He wanted to wrestle her to the ground so the leaves matted her hair. He wanted to force her legs apart and make her his forever.
He hugged her to him, but he couldn’t kiss her. He had to hide from those maddening dark eyes. He kissed her neck instead. He bathed his burning eyes under her ear and her hair. Her fingers soothed the back of his neck, and she sighed in his ear. Everything she did to comfort him only drove him farther into madness. She took his life and gave him back a life he didn’t recognize, a life dedicated to her.
He cast one glance over his shoulder, but he couldn’t see Dodd Homestead. It might as well never have existed. She guided his head around to look at her. “Come with me, Foicks. Leave it behind. Don’t go back.”
His eyes drifted closed and he nodded. “All right.”
Once he said those words, as much to himself as to her, he could look her in the eye the way he used to. He could face the future. He didn’t need the faction, and the faction didn’t need him. They would find a new leader, and he would gain back so much more happiness with her.
She met his gaze, and their lips found their place together. He crushed her against him, but no amount of hugging could ever be enough. No touch from her would be enough until they crossed that threshold keeping them apart.
She surged against him, hotter than ever. Her legs brushed back and forth against each other, and she rubbed the bulge in his pants. Her breasts quivered under his chin when he lifted her off the ground to kiss her.
She breathed into his mouth. “Right here. I want to.”
He set her on her feet one more time. “Not here. Not like this.”
Her eyes flew open. “Why not? We could be bears. I have a den…”
He cut her off with a curt nod. “Not here. Come back to my place. You’ll be comfortable there.”
“I’ll be comfortable in the den, too. I want you. I want your bear.”
He seethed in monstrous desire. He towered over her, and his muscles swelled. “I’ll give you a bear. I’ll give you more bear than you can handle.”
She pressed her lips against his, but the tide had turned. He was in control. He would show her. He would take her somewhere he could make her comfortable. He would erase the last vestige of their old lives, and when they left it, they would leave together, no matter what.
He took her hand, and now he led her through the woods. He crossed Dodd territory into Dunlap territory until he came back to his own bungalow. Not one car dotted the landscape. No sound disturbed the silence. Only birds twittered overhead.
He opened the door on silent hinges and escorted her inside. He pushed the door closed until it latched, and they tiptoed across the living room. He looked up to find Haven grinning from ear to ear. Foicks frowned. “What’s so funny?”
She shook her head, but she couldn’t stop giggling. “What are we sneaking around for?”
He grinned and kissed her. “I don’t want you to find out.”
“Find out what? That we’re mated for life?”
He swept her off her feet and spun her around. He laughed into her neck. Then he pushed her toward his room. “Get in there, girl. Don’t make me have to spank you.”
She squealed and scuttled into the room. He rushed after her and closed the door behind him. Her cheeks glowed and her eyes sparkled when he faced her. He bowed with a flourish. “Well, Madam, here we are. My humble abode.”
She didn’t look around the room. It was nothing more than a young man’s bedroom. She kept her eyes on him, but she couldn’t stop smiling. “Well?”
“Well?” He advanced on her.
He grabbed her around the waist and caught her up in his arms. He kissed her and swung her around in a circle, but their lips never came apart again. Their tongues lashed back and forth. Neither could get enough of the other.
Foicks pawed down her back to her waist. At long last, he could follow those mind-blowing curves from top to bottom. No one could stop him. That ass was his to squeeze and pat. He could drag his fingertips up those thighs and listen to the air sucking through her nostrils.
He could stroke her and tease her until the soft whimpers squeaked from her nostrils and murmured between his lips. He could hunch his abs to prod her with his bulging cock. He never had to hold back his desire again.
Chapter 14
Foicks took a few steps. Haven’s knees bumped into his bed, and they toppled on top of each other. Haven burst out laughing. Foicks clamped two fingers into her ribs to tickle her, and Haven screamed. She lunged upwards, but he dove on top of her and held her down.
He tickled her until she shrieked with laughter. He yelled over her cries. “You want something to laugh about? I’ll give you something to laugh about.”
She fought back, but she couldn’t overpower him. He heaved his weight onto her and tickled her until it hurt. In one last desperate bid for freedom, she brought her knee up to hit him in the groin. She missed and hit him in the guts instead.
He doubled over and groaned. He rolled off her onto the bed and hugged his arms around his middle. He coughed and wheezed. Haven jumped onto her knees over him. “Are you all right? I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hit you so hard.”
“You harpy,” he croaked. “I deserved that for messing with you. You really know how to make a guy go soft, don’t you?”
She gazed down at him. She put her head on one side and thought about something. Then she slid her hand down his stomach and touched the rock-hard mass between his legs. A wicked grin spread over his face. “You are such a terrible liar.”
His eyes popped open to stare at her. Then both his hands shot out to grab her. He snatched her wrist away from his crotch. “I’ll get you.”
He tried to jump up, but Haven leapt on top of him and straddled his hips to drive him down on the bed. “You stay where you are. You had your turn on top. Now it’s my turn.”
Foicks sank back into his place. Haven draped her body over him, and her hair hung in his face. She leaned lower, and her breath filled his nostrils when she kissed him. He laid his hands on either side of her waist, but he wouldn’t stroke down her sides. He only rested there.
His passive acceptance fired her desire more than ever. Haven sat on his hips and dangled her breasts in his face. She mouthed his kisses from him and licked his pungent saliva. Man, he tasted so incredibly wonderful! She never experienced anything like it in her life.
The rod between his legs poked up into her sensitive tissues. It excited all her nerves to seep her juice against his prick. She rocked back and forth on that spike. Her fermented desires burned hotter than she could stand.
Foicks arched his back and extended his arms above his head. He grabbed the wrought-iron bed frame with both thick hands and held on. His muscled shoulders spread out under his shirt, and his chest flexed when he tightened his grip. He closed his eyes. “Take me. I’m all yours.”
Haven inhaled a deep breath of his scent. She trailed her lips down his chin to his neck and nipped the soft skin where his neck met his shoulders. She clawed down his chest and growled under her breath. She wanted that skin underneath. She wanted his muscle and his blood and his breath.
She stole a glance up at him. He lay stretched out with his eyes closed and his head turned to one side. She watched his nostrils flare when she circled his nipples through his shirt.
She nuzzled down his chest and tugged at his shirt with her lips. She dragged her fingers down his sides, but she didn’t tickle. She enjoyed watching his lips fall open and the breath catch in his thr
oat. His abs contracted as his swollen crotch lunged out to touch her.
She tugged his shirt out of his waistband to reveal that chiseled six pack. She kissed him up the middle and burrowed her hands under the smooth cotton. She caressed his armpits and flicked the hard points of his nipples. He moaned under his breath, but he wouldn’t open his eyes.
Haven gazed down at this man lying spread out for her pleasure. She could do exactly what she wanted with him. He was hers, body and soul. He brought her to his room, and they would leave as mates. She sat up straight on his hips and regarded him in all his vulnerable anticipation.
Overwhelming love for him flooded her heart. She never loved anyone like she loved him then. She wanted to kiss him and excite him. She wanted to show him pleasure, to fulfill him the way he fulfilled her.
He wouldn’t open his eyes to look at her, not even when she kissed him again. She rose on all fours above him and cupped his cheek on one hand. She raised his face. “Look at me, Foicks. Look at me.”
His eyes opened, but when their gazes met, she gasped in surprise to see his eyes misting over. “What’s wrong?”
He searched her face. “I love you. I love you so much, I don’t know…”
She cried out in surprise. “I love you, too. I love you more than anything.”
His hands flew off the bed frame. He threw his arms around her and hugged her down on top of him. “Don’t ever leave me. Don’t ever leave me alone.”
She rested her head on his chest. “I’ll never leave you. We’re together now. We’ll always be together.”
He laid one big hand against her ear and pressed her to his heart. “Promise me. Promise me.”
She struggled free of his grasp to look into his eyes. “We’re mated, Foicks. We’re mated for life. No one will ever part us.”
He choked on the words. “I couldn’t stand anything happening to you.”
“Nothing will happen to me. The only thing that could happen to me is something happening to you. As long as we’re together, we’ll always love each other. We’ll love each other ‘til we die.”
Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume II) Page 56