by Cecilia Lane
“Will you shift? Please? You’re still bleeding, and I can’t stand the sight.” He scrubbed hands through his hair and then shoved them forward in a frustrated plea. “I need to take care of you.”
The words tore at her heart. The cat respected his instincts, and the human felt guilty he still had them. They’d messed up in so many ways, but he wouldn’t set her aside.
She shut her eyes, and the cat let the human take her place. She panted on the ground for what felt like a full minute. Every muscle ached. Her lack of sleep before the fight didn’t help the energy it took to switch shapes.
Strong hands grabbed her elbows and helped her to her feet. Sawyer crutched her first stumbling steps and didn’t let go when she found her footing.
Everly thought she would melt into his side.
He led her through his cabin and into the bathroom, tossing a towel in her direction and wrapping one around his waist. Red stained the fabric where it touched his half-healed wounds. Surprise filled her when she glanced down at herself. Far more red covered her towel than his.
Sawyer reached under the bathroom sink and pulled out a first aid kit. Then he reached for her and settled her on the counter. Even over the metallic scent of blood, she picked up his scent. It zinged through her and spiked her heartbeat. The soreness of her muscles sluiced away and left her with a surge of energy she didn’t know where to ground.
Sawyer licked his lips. Eyes locked on hers, he folded up the hem of the towel and exposed her thigh. His fingers grazed over her skin and he dabbed at the still-closing wound that ran from just below her hip bone to her knee.
Everly swallowed hard. Need. That was what pooled in her middle. The restless energy filling her after the fight needed Sawyer to quiet it. Her cat sent lazy, hazy images. The beast was too tired to put much effort into convincing her human half of the truth. Sawyer was their mate, and she needed his mark on her skin.
Everly’s thoughts flipped to where they’d been before Nolan crashed the party. His hard body pinning her to a wall. Her breathless moans urging him for more. Interruptions seemed determined to keep them apart.
Probably best. Words needed to be had. She needed to sort through her emotions. What better time than when he tended wounds caused by her actions.
She choked back her desire for the man. “I’m sorry I put your clan in danger. I should have listened to you.”
Sawyer didn’t stop dabbing at one wound, then another. She’d hardly need a shower after he was done with her.
Silence stretched between them until she squirmed. It wasn’t a good enough apology, she knew it. She also didn’t know what else to say or do. Grovel? Ask him what penance he needed from her? Simply vanish into the night and never show her face in Bearden again?
Her cat hissed at the last idea.
Sawyer finally spoke. “Those men out there have some strong morals and sense of duty. They can’t not help when someone is in need. Doesn’t matter the odds, they will always go to bat for the ones they care about.” His lips twitched with a flash of a smile. “You know what Callum handed down when I brought you here? He gave me all the extra weekend shifts for three months and said I’d get another six months if I didn’t figure out a way to make things right with you.”
She blinked at him. They’d never really discussed what was said when the mates separated her from Sawyer. She’d wanted to deny the connection that existed between them and then... Then everything spiraled into fast-moving events with little control. “What do you mean?”
He lifted his head from an inspection of another cut. Gold and brown fought to color his eyes. “What I’m saying, darlin’, is those men and their mates would have fought at your side if they met you on the street. Don’t punish yourself because they wanted to help.”
“But the brawl—”
“Were you convinced you needed to go?”
“Yes. Emery wanted out. She begged me to get her.”
“Then the only thing that would have changed would have been us walking into that park at your side.”
Air left her lungs in an angry rush and she broke their connection. No lie clung to his scent; he fully believed his words. Which solidly put the blame back in her corner. All the slights and hurts of her life in the pride had built walls around her. Trust wasn’t easy to come by, and the lack of it kept her lips sealed shut.
Sawyer set down his supplies and brushed fingers over her cheeks. “I get it, that anger. I’ve lived with it eating away at me for years. I keep it bottled away because it doesn’t do anyone any good. But you...”
“Yes?” Everly held her breath. She knew what she wanted to hear. She even had an inkling of what he would say. The pause killed her.
“I knew you were a fighter from the moment I met you.”
“You saw a face you liked marked up with bruises.”
“I saw a woman who lifted her chin and dared me with fire in her eyes to make a move. Right or wrong, I did. Because you’re mine,” he said fiercely. “You’re the only one who quiets the anger in me completely and the only one that my bear can stand for any length of time. I’d follow you into five thousand more fights.”
“You did the right thing.” She turned her face into his palm and held his hand to keep him from moving away. That comfort he spoke of, she felt that. Her body seemed to go boneless with relaxation whenever their skin touched.
And right on the heels of sinking into that warmth came a rush of need.
She shifted her legs so he settled between them. So close, and still so far. She trailed her hands down his chest, feeling every dip between the thick slabs of muscle.
Calm flooded her with an assurance that this act was right. Her need of him was natural. He was her mate. He wouldn’t be a mate in the way Wade was to Emery, or her father to her mother. Sawyer would be decent and kind and caring. He’d be like the males of the Strathorn clan were to their females.
Sawyer Strickland would be the mate she needed. He’d love her and let her love him. They’d give and take from each other because it’d make them happy, just like he told her on one of the first nights their lives collided.
She picked him. He was the family she chose.
He grabbed her wrist when she stuffed her fingers into the waist of his towel. More gold warred with the brown of his eyes. Heat blasted off his skin. The beat of a vein in his neck matched her own racing pulse. “You’re still hurt,” he said thickly.
“So are you.” Everly leaned forward and nipped the flat circle of his nipple. “Be gentle when you claim me.”
“Claim you?” His throat bobbed with his hard swallow.
“Yes, my mate. I’m yours.”
A groan and a growl bubbled out of his throat as he surged forward to claim her lips. A hand shot out and wrapped around the back of her neck, dragging her to the very edge of the counter at the same time he pressed close. Everly wrapped her arms around his shoulders and squeezed away the last bit of air between them. It still wasn’t enough.
She slid her palms up and down his arms, dragging nails over his biceps, his collarbone, into his hair.
He took his time kissing her. It was maddening, really, and sent heat spiraling through her body. She chased his kiss and pressed for more. He nibbled her lower lip, then licked away the sting of pain. She gasped, mouth parting, and he finally swooped in for more.
He consumed her slowly and thoroughly, leaving no doubt who she belonged to. She laid her own claim over him, matching him stroke for stroke. Firm and hot, his mouth sealed over hers and sent her head spinning.
His hand slid up her thigh and to the apex of her legs. He broke their kiss only to trail biting, sucking kisses down her neck. Her stomach jumped with the nip of his teeth at the point where her neck and shoulder met.
Sawyer gave her no time to focus on any one thing. Hidden under the towel still wrapped around her, he teased her. His finger brushed up her entrance and circled her clit, all while his lips fluttered over the vein of her neck.
“Sawyer,” she growled. Growled, dammit! Not a squeak!
Her mate chuckled darkly and crashed his mouth over hers again. Their tongues tangled, and she met him with a frenzy built from his meandering touches. She couldn’t get enough of him. Raw male, pure heat, he drew gasps and breathy moans from her.
Sawyer’s fingers delved into her heat, dipping in and out at a casual pace. Not good enough. She wanted—needed—more.
Everly grabbed his wrist and held him steady, rocking her own pace on his fingers.
A sexy groan rumbled in Sawyer. He ripped the towel open and watched her. “That’s it, darlin’. Fuck yourself on my hand. Take what you need.”
A wordless cry fell from her lips. The heated gold of his eyes didn’t see her as inferior. She was his equal, one who deserved the pleasure he could provide. She wasn’t something to be used and cast aside.
Those hungry eyes and his panted breath urged her to do exactly what he commanded.
Everly rolled her hips and plunged him inside her. She could barely breathe. Pleasure built in her core at the strokes she directed. Growls tumbled out of Sawyer and he leaned forward, capturing a nipple between his teeth.
Stars burst behind Everly’s eyelids, and bliss stretched on for an eternity.
Breathing hard, she reached for him. His towel fell away from his waist and his hard cock thumped into her hand. Precum welled at the tip. She swiped her thumb to spread the fluid and ringed him with her fingers.
One stroke, and he growled. “Not here.”
Everly snapped her head up and searched his face. His eyes were closed, the muscles of his neck and shoulders bunched with tension. She stopped stroking his cock. “What?”
He said he wanted her. She said she wanted him. Was he reconsidering tying himself to her for life? Marriage was just a slip of paper. Mating was forever.
His eyes snapped open and he leaned forward to capture her earlobe between his teeth. A shiver worked its way down her spine.
“I don’t want this to be a quick bathroom fuck,” he breathed. “I want you in our bed. I want to spread you out and love you properly.”
Our bed. She liked the sound of that. A purr vibrated in her throat and she thought she might combust when his hot mouth kissed the hollow.
He wrapped her legs around his waist and carried her into the bedroom.
Sawyer carried his bride and his mate over the threshold of the bathroom and into their bedroom. His bear rumbled in his head, anticipating the high that would come from the taste of her on his lips. Everly was a drug for them both, and they needed their fix.
He dropped her to the mattress and devoured her with a hungry gaze.
Gorgeous. Dirty blonde hair hung wild around her face. Hazel eyes pooled into gold. Heavy breasts and curves made for holding, squeezing, bouncing. And that purr… Fuck, that purr drove him crazy.
Evidence of the fight still marred her skin. Pink lines of closed wounds would disappear over the next few days, but they were stark reminders of how might have lost her.
And proof of the fire that lived inside her. She fought for others as fiercely as she cared for them. He’d do everything in his power to see it never go out. She wasn’t made for living under someone’s thumb. She needed her own choices, and he’d give her that space to make them.
She’d make an amazing mother. No one would dare mess with their cubs.
He dropped to all fours and planted a kiss on her ankle. Her calf was next, then her knee. He kissed his way up her body and to her delicious center.
He wanted to live there. Her scent, floral and exotic and thick with her arousal, grabbed him around the neck and by the balls. Perfect. Made for him.
Unable to resist, he flicked out his tongue and licked her core.
“Sawyer,” she groaned. A sharp tug on his hair lifted his head from between her thighs. Desperation lined her features. “Need you now.”
He wrapped an arm under her lower back and gathered her to his chest. With one thrust, he filled her. Her knees fell open just a little more, her eyes widened, and her mouth made a sexy little ‘o.’
Gentle. He had to be gentle. They both had cuts that could rip open with too much force. Their mating needed to be special. Loving.
He bent over her, savoring her scent, the feel of her wrapped around him like a snug glove. Heaven. That was what she felt like. And he needed more.
He drew back and surged into her awaiting heat.
Everly moaned under him. Her purr kicked up a notch as he skimmed his lips over her jaw, down her neck. He plumped her breasts and licked between her nipples. The spasm around his cock and her sharp inhale told how much she enjoyed it.
By the Broken, he’d make sure he had a lifetime to learn all the little spots of her body that needed to be touched. She gave him unspoken directions with the desperate way she met his thrusts, the bite of her nails, and, the most telling, the soft cries and heaving breaths.
Perfect, gorgeous mate.
“More,” she moaned into the crook of his neck. Her nails bit into his back to emphasize her demand.
Loving with Everly meant it all, the gentle and the rough.
He drove into her deeper. Faster. Fuck, but the tight flutters around his cock felt too good. There was no stopping, though. Her wild cries and thrashing hips met his every stroke. Each thrust quickened her breath and strangled him a little more.
“Sawyer!” she cried. Rippling muscles danced over him. The sensation drew his balls up tight, and heat gathered in his spine.
Claim. Mark. Bite.
Fuck, yes. She was his.
Her mouth closed around his neck at the same time her muscles clamped down around him.
With a roar, he slammed into her one final time. Hot seed spilled into her wet heat, and he sank his fangs into her skin. Pleasure soared through him at the sting of her mark on his skin.
Claimed by his mate. Claiming his mate.
All the broken parts of him came together as a giant middle finger to the past. Everly clung to him, and he to her, like there was no tomorrow.
But there would be. And many more after that.
Fuck the past. They deserved their future.
Epilogue
Everly wiped the steam from the mirror and blinked. Sometimes she didn’t recognize herself. There was a light in her eyes that’d been missing before. Her cheeks weren’t sunken. Laugh lines had formed around her mouth. The months in Bearden had done her good.
To celebrate her time—and Sawyer’s first weekend without extra shifts at the firehouse—they were heading out to hike a trail and have a picnic near the big waterfall in the territory.
As soon as she finished getting ready. After another wipe of the mirror, she took a comb to her hair.
The delay was entirely not her fault. Sawyer was supposed to wake her. Instead, he let her sleep through most of the morning and then wouldn’t let her leave bed for a good while after that. Everly’s cheeks heated and her inner cat purred.
The man was insatiable and she loved it. Loved him. She’d fought against the big, scary changes he brought into her life when she should have just opened her eyes. What had always been slightly out of focus and wrong cleared up when she focused from a different spot.
Her mate gave her the world. He didn’t need to be a cat or in her pride or chosen by her alpha. She picked him, and he picked her. The simplicity was perfection.
She cocked her head at a knock on the door, then promptly dismissed it when Sawyer shouted to her that he got it.
She couldn’t hear the words exchanged at the door, but a second later Sawyer shouted to her again. “Everly! Someone is here to see you.”
Grumbling, Everly tugged on jeans and a t-shirt and abandoned doing anything special with her hair. Wet locks flicked at her cheeks and neck as she rushed out of the bedroom, ready to give whoever dropped in on her date day with Sawyer a piece of her mind. She made sure no appointments were on the books, and none of her patients were close to deliverin
g.
Everly first noticed Sawyer with his arms crossed and a blank face. Then she swept her attention to the person occupying their couch.
She stopped in shock.
“Emery.”
Her sister twisted on the couch to face her and Everly’s heart fell into her stomach. While she’d improved over the months in Bearden, Emery’s months had been hard on her. She was rail thin, and her hair hung limply around her shoulders. After the initial look, her eyes dropped to her feet.
“Hi, Everly,” Em whispered.
Caution colored everything about the meeting. Her cat urged it, watching her sister warily. Sawyer’s scent was full of it. Even Emery herself seemed skittish and ready to bolt.
“You look good. Settling down suits you.” Em looked around and dug her fingers into her thighs. She wanted to run.
Everly saw her chance. She told Emery to run the night the pride came for her, and Em chose that over the pride. Maybe, just maybe, Em showing up in Bearden meant she was ready to find her own place in the world. She needed help, that was certain.
Everly still wanted the sisterly bond she saw every time Becca and Faith got together. Laughter and tears and jokes and support. They held each other up.
She’d prop Emery on her feet if her sister allowed it. That felt like the final missing piece of her life.
She glanced at Sawyer, and he shrugged with sympathy written all over his face. “Why don’t we go into town? We can get some lunch and I’ll show you around and we can talk.”
Em nodded and sprang to her feet. “I’ll wait outside.”
Everly frowned after her sister. She hadn’t been so bad, had she? The thick scent of nerves barely faded after she exited the room.
“I can go with you.” Sawyer crossed the room and brushed fingertips over her cheek. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”