My bear was the reason I was here. She’d pulled me to come all the way out here to Carl’s isolated cabin. Now she wanted the man she craved to remain naked for her viewing pleasure. But, the human in me needed him fully clothed. The dutiful alpha’s wife needed the temptation of the young brawler’s out-of-control-muscular form out of her site.
Carl was already deep into his mating heat, and his body was pumping out a powerful mix of pheromones. His scent called to me. That delicious smell of his was near impossible to ignore. My scenting of his sensual fragrance coupled with my viewing of his immaculately sculpted body was pushing my desire for him over the tipping point.
If he didn’t cover up soon, my bear would tear its way through my human skin and demand to claim him as hers. She would insist that he fill us full with his seed and give us the cubs we’ve been wanting. His cubs: the babies that are destined to be born of our union if we mate now.
As I pushed the pile of clothes into Carl’s arms, one of my hands grazed his forearm. I felt a bolt of desire zing through my body and explode over my clit. My knees buckled from the sheer force of the delicious agony of my climax, and I winced.
“Are you alright, Gina?” He asked, with furrowed brows.
“I’m fine,” I lied again as I tried to ignore the need for him that was plaguing my body. I don’t know why I lied. We shifters can sense when someone is lying. I wasn’t fooling him. He knew I wanted to mount his body. He knew I wanted to breed him. But, somehow trying to hide my desire for him seemed like the respectable thing for me to do. It seemed like the right course of action at this moment.
I had to do something. My clit was still pulsing through its orgasm, enveloped in fiery lust for the dangerous shifter. And my bear was growling inside my chest, eager to rip her way out of my skin and claim the twenty-eight-year-old and still barely-older-than-a-cub as her own.
‘You already have a mate!’ The part of me that’s human screamed the words inside my mind, trying to control my bear and her lusty appetite. ‘Your alpha is your fated mate. Stop lusting after this cub!’ I reprimanded my animal for her desires, hoping to lessen her control over our shared body.
But, my bear was having none of it. She was already in the painful throws of her heat. Her body was on fire. She was panting inside me, desperate to do whatever she needed to claim the mate she’d tagged as hers almost a decade ago. I knew it. She knew it. And by the way, our cub’s eyes were glowing gold, he knew it too.
‘Our mate needs us. He’s in pain. We need to ease the pain of his heat by mating with him. We need to ease our pain too.’ My bear tried to reason with me. She was trying to use my compassion against me. She was doing her best to convince me to betray my marriage vows to my alpha. ‘Carl’s our fated mate too, just like the alpha. We should claim him and make babies with him. It’s what’s right. We three are a triad.’
‘It’s not what’s right!’ I shouted back at her in my mind. ‘We’re bears. We’re not wolves, and we don’t do triads. I’ve never heard of a bear triad. Never. There’s no happy ending to claiming this cub as ours. All this mating will accomplish is destroying our marriage to the alpha. Our true fated mate.’
Carl stood in front of me panting. His eyes were bright luminescent gold. The muscles of his shoulders and arms flexed tightly as he clutched his damp clothes to his chest, refusing to clothe himself. He was waiting. The hungry bear was granting me time to finish my internal argument before he grabbed me, beginning the mating ritual.
He was sniffing the air, inhaling my pheromones, eager for me to give him the go-ahead to begin the wrestling ritual. He was ready to pump his seed inside me. The hungry bear was ravenous to devour my body with his and stuff me full with his babies. The man’s brightly glowing eyes betrayed his desperation to begin breeding me and seal our destined future together.
I know he scents my fertility. He knows what will happen if we mate. My belly will swell with new life. We will start our family anew. We will be sealed in a bond of eternal love together. Me, Carl… and the alpha.
Bears live long lives. It’s rare for a bear to pass before the age of 90. So, if we mated and I bore Carl a set of cubs, there’d still be plenty of time to raise them to adulthood. We’d even have time to celebrate welcoming our cub’s cubs when our offspring grew old enough to have babies of their own.
If the three of us were truly a triad, we would have at least forty good years together. We could be happy. The three of us could bond in a powerful union of love.
Just because I’ve never heard of a bear triad before, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Triads are usually a wolf thing, but the two men in question do have wolf blood in them. Both Alpha’s and Carl’s mothers were werewolves. Maybe it’s the wolf genes making all of this happen. It’s certainly got nothing to do with our bears. How would a bear triad work, anyway? I don’t know. This is all new to me.
‘Mine!’ my bear growled inside my chest again. I was feeling her voice vibrate powerfully inside my ribcage now, which meant her control over our shared body was growing stronger. ‘Must claim my mate and bear his cubs,’ she huffed again, and my chest shook with the strength of her declaration.
But, I wasn’t ready to give in to her need to mate, yet. I had to know if the Alpha, Carl and I were truly a triad before I abandoned myself to my lust for the virile young shifter.
Her will was growing more powerful by the second, and she was set to overtake me. So, I did the only thing I could think of to make my bear stop and take notice.
I shoved my hand underneath the front of my shirt and dug my fingernails into my belly, ripping open my flesh and forcing blood to spurt out. The intense pain lets my animal know I would do whatever was necessary to remain in full control of our body. My agony also took over my conscious mind and sent my bear’s lustful huffings into the background of my thoughts.
‘Mine…my mate,’ my bear whimpered as she retreated, her power over our shared body diminishing.
Carl stepped forward, his large frame towering over mine as he sniffed in the scent of my blood and pain. This was bad. I hadn’t considered what his bear’s reaction would be before taking the foolish step of harming myself. If he were my fated mate, his bear would feel protective of me. It would rise to defend me – even from myself.
Chapter 4: Gina
I knew I was in trouble when a deep roar bellowed from the depths of Carl’s chest. Bears only roar when they’re near death or when they’re in such tremendous agony they wish to be dead. His bear’s roar left no further room for doubt. We were fated mates. He, Alpha and I were a triad, destined to be united in an eternal bond of love.
My fear screamed at me to run away from his roar. Roars meant danger. It was a sign the bear was turning feral, brutish. A brute bear’s actions couldn’t be anticipated. Carl might crush me while trying to protect me. In a feat of brute strength, he might harm the woman he so desperately wants to help.
I knew Carl to be a dangerous man. Yet, I also knew him as a sweet boyish bear, who was hungry to scarf down the sweet treats I would bake for him in my kitchen. I saw his gentleness in the way he licked his lips, and his nose scrunched up adorably when I fed him cookies. When he was crafting meals in his own kitchen or when we were collaborating on a cookbook the man had an air of warmth and kindness. But, I never allowed those displays of tenderness to blind me to the savage underneath. Like the alpha, at heart, Carl was a brute bear.
He took too easily to his role as a clan security enforcer. The man had no qualms about eviscerating anyone who threatened to harm our community. Now that his fated mate was injured, his bear would be blinded by rage. The animal’s fury had the real potential of becoming deadly.
“It’s okay bear. See. I’m okay.” I held up my hands, exposing my trembling palms to him to prove I was alright, and there was no need to shift to protect me.
Now, I could only hope that my words had calmed some of his animal’s fury. I needed the man to win out over the bear. I prayed for Carl�
��s luminescent gold eyes to return to their normal matte chocolate brown color. I tried to hide my fear and smiled sweetly at him, hoping his bear would calm down. But instead, just as I had feared might happen, his eyes flashed brighter.
“Don’t hurt!” Carl’s throat thundered a great roar as his body convulsed. I jumped back. Needing to protect myself, I had no choice but to release my bear. Only she could protect me from the damage Carl might do while transforming into his grizzly form.
I know he doesn’t want to hurt me, but he’s clearly lost control of his animal. If one of his limbs so much as grazes my body during the furious height of his transformation, he might seriously injure me.
Bones snapped, and fur sprung up where none had been before. Necks twisted. Muscles and tendons rearranged themselves. Claws dug into the moist riverbank soil. Our eyes both glowed brilliant gold. We were no longer human. We were bears. Ravenous bears in heat.
Carl’s bear reared up on his hind legs and expanded its chest, huffing dominantly. My bear growled thunderously and stood on her back legs as well, refusing to accept his dominance. We were at a standoff. My bear was determined to have the young grizzly now towering in front of her be the first to retreat.
Mere seconds earlier Carl’s bear was trying to protect me. Now nature had taken over, and the animal was attempting to do something completely different. It was initiating the wrestling ritual. His bear was inciting mine to spar.
Full of the rage of her heat, my bear lunged forward. His animal jumped back running the short distance toward his cabin before standing up on his hind legs again. My bear wanted his bear to lie down on his back and present his belly to her. She wanted to press her paw down on it. She hungered to dominate the young grizzly. The alpha blood coursing through our veins from our mating to Alpha is what made us want to do these things to him.
The young bear lunged forward gripping the sides of my bear’s chest in his crushingly powerful grasp. My grizzly hadn’t yet had the chance to heal us from our self-inflicted wounds, so the force of his powerful hold caused agonizing pain to tear through our belly. The cub released his grip on our chest in the instant he heard our tormented cry.
But, my bear still pursued her need for dominance. She lunged forward, her muzzle grazing the tiny bear shaped scar on his neck where she’d first tagged him as hers when he was just eighteen-years-old. Twisting our neck upward, she clamped her strong jaws onto the side of his muzzle. With a show of raw power, she forced his gigantic body down to the ground.
Finally on top of him, my bear lifted up one massively clawed paw. Our bodies and minds joined together as one, both she and I prepared to claim what was ours. We would force our cub to submit to us. We would claim our right to own his body.
“Stop this now!” The alpha’s dominating voice thundered out from behind us. His powerful command echoed along the river and climbed the tree-covered mountainside.
My bear and I whimpered in unison as we transformed back to our human form. Carl’s body rapidly snapped and twisted its way back to its human self as well. Within moments, I lay on top of my partner in crime, my fragile naked body pressed against his strong, muscular form. We had both been so engrossed in the mating ritual that we didn’t see or hear my husband’s cruiser pull up behind us.
“So this is how you two behave while I’m gone!”
My body trembled and shook with the force of the raw fury that radiated off my husband’s powerful physique. I watched his fists clench and unclench as he strode toward us. His eyes glowed fiery gold. As he marched closer, he yanked off his leather jacket and threw it on the ground behind him. With each powerful stomp of his boots on the grassy earth, I was certain he meant to punish me. From his vantage point, what Carl and I were just doing had to appear to be a betrayal of our marriage vows.
Alpha grunted and in response Carl carefully lifted my body off of his. Without saying a word he stood up, opened the front door to his cabin and walked inside. He left the door open for me to follow, but I just stayed put, lying naked, trembling on the ground. Instinctively, he must have known neither he nor I would escape my husband’s wrath. But, he was leaving my husband and me alone to sort out our issues in private before his turn for punishment came.
There would be no running from the alpha. My fate was sealed. I stole one last look at the brilliant glow of the full moon as it rose in the sky behind my husband’s angry eyes. After savoring one last glance of the moon’s beauty, I clenched my eyes shut and awaited whatever punishment he was about to inflict on me.
“You’re hurt,” I heard my alpha growl as he bent down to examine my abdominal wound. He placed one hot hand on my belly, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. My alpha had never punished me before. He had only cherished my body and soul with the deepest love I had ever known. Even so, I was now gravely fearful of his wrath, knowing how brutally love can turn to hate after a betrayal. My punishment was certain to be harsh.
“Heal yourself,” My husband grunted out his order through gritted teeth. Terrified, my bear immediately began to comply.
Both my alpha and I knew it would take several minutes for my bear to fully heal me. While we waited for my body to repair itself, Alpha fell to the earth beside me and pressed his naked body into mine. With surprising speed, he fisted thick chunks of my raven hair in hand and yanked my face upward toward his. I refused to open my eyes while he held me in position. I didn’t want to see what he was going to do to me next.
Chapter 5: Gina
“Are you fully healed?” Alpha asked while sniffing the air. He already knew the answer was yes, but I suppose he wanted me to say the words myself. He wanted me to tell him I was okay.
“Yes, I’m okay,” I confessed before holding my breath in terror.
“Never lie to me,” he growled while unfisting my hair then picking me up like a tiny doll and turning my body to face away from his.
I knew I was in big trouble. My husband didn’t even want to look me in the face while he punished me. My thighs trembled beneath my hands as I guessed at what horrors my big brutish husband had planned for my well-built, but much smaller than his frame. He had never hurt me before, but I sensed such intense rage radiating off him that I couldn’t be certain he wouldn’t harm me now.
Without warning, the brute pushed my upper body forward with extreme force. My elbows and forearms crashed down onto the grassy ground, and my ass flew up into the air.
“Tell me the truth. Are you fully healed?” The command that shouted out from behind me wasn’t quite a roar, but it was close.
Hot dread washed over the entire surface of my skin. Still positioned on my elbows and knees with my ass high in the air, I dropped my face down to the grassy earth searching for comfort. My lungs burned through each of my heavy pants as I hyperventilated. I cradled my right cheek into the soft, moist grass below me.
A cool night breeze swept up the mountainside and brushed over my exposed nipples forcing them to harden. Involuntarily my core heated and slick, wet arousal dripped from my channel and slid down my inner thighs. My body’s physical readiness to mate excited my husband and he began to make deep huffing noises behind me.
My husband sniffed at the air and huffed loudly, inhaling my scent. I felt the firm tip of his nose slide down my spread open ass cheeks past my puckered hole and finally stop over my slick opening, pressing against the entrance to my sopping wet slit.
“Answer me,” he growled his words into the wet, ruffled folds of my sex.
I panted out my words. “My wound is fully healed. But – but – I’m not okay.” I changed my original answer to reflect the truth. While my self-inflicted wound is indeed healed, I’m truly not okay. I’m terrified of my husband. I fear my fated mate.
This intense fear is an emotion I never dreamt would be present between me and the man I’ve loved with the full strength of my heart for the last thirty years. We are fated, mates. We should always be able to trust and depend on one another. There should never be fear.
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But now it seems that in the instant Alpha caught me with Carl, everything between us has changed. Sniffing the air, I scent overwhelming rage in my husband’s heart. Hunger radiates from him. It’s a ravenous need to punish me and use my body roughly.
“Tell me the truth.” Alpha ripped his face away from my sex. He spoke the words coarsely while running his large hands up and down the length of my back, massaging my flesh with long, firm strokes. “Do you want to be bred like a bitch?”
Oh, hell no. I don’t care what you think I’ve done. You will not disrespect me. “Don’t speak to me that way!” I was still terrified, but I couldn’t help shouting my outrage at the harsh way he was talking to me. I tried to pop my body upright, but he pressed his large hands against my upper back, holding me down. I growled in anger as he held my face to the grass.
“Good girl. Get angry. You should be furious for this.”
“Let me up!” I screamed, and he complied, immediately releasing his weight from my back.
I steeled my courage, forced my eyes open and turned around to confront him.
“I know you want to punish me, but this disrespectful behavior is uncalled for—”
“I thought you would enjoy being held down.” My husband grunted then licked his lips while eyeing my naked bosom. “Werewolf bitches bow their heads to their alphas. Or didn’t you know that?”
“I’m not a werewolf. I’m a bear. You know that—”
“You don’t know what I know—”
“Look, I understand you’re angry, but I’ve done nothing wrong,” I said, confessing the truth. “Carl is our third. We’re a triad. Maybe the first bear triad, ever. Because of tonight’s full moon, my pull to mate with him is impossible for me to resist. I can understand what a shock it must have been for you to see me and your beta acting out the mating ritual. But, I won’t apologize for it. I’ve done nothing wrong!—”
Taboo Desires: Dirty Forbidden Secrets Bundle (The Complete Miranda Cougar Collection) Page 2