“I do want you, girl,” he breathed. “And your submission. What man wouldn’t want you? All this soft skin… this bright hair… this scent… You smell as sweet as raw vanilla, girl. I want to devour you where you stand!”
Ginger glanced down and saw that his stubby cock was hardening under his tunic of tanned skin and fur. Unimpressive size. After Hunter and Dane’s massive endowments, he would never satisfy her.
“So lovely,” he whispered, running a thumb down her nose, onto her lips. “Gorgeous, gorgeous thing. Would you take care of my needs, girl? Would you defer to your Alpha?”
Repulsive. But agree to anything. Distract him. Buy time.
“For their sake.”
“So then you know I’ll win this, girl. You know I’ll defeat the clans. That’s why you came to ransom for their lives before it happens.”
“Yes.” She wanted to flinch away from his sour smell.
He squeezed her breast—hard, much too hard. “Come into the cave, girl. Show me your compliance.”
“Now?”
“Do they know you’re here? Your men? I smell them on you.”
“No.” She held his eyes to prove her honesty: Don’t let him know it’s a lie.
“Come into the cave. I’ll mate you right now. I’ll give you a new scent to wear.”
She wanted to throw up on him, but that wasn’t an option. She was here to hold his attention—any way she could.
Submissively, she flicked her eyes to the ground, then up again. “I will, but only if you promise to show mercy to—”
“I promise nothing. But if you please me, I may be prepared to grant you a favor.”
A hot, strange anger surged inside her—an animal anger, something she’d never felt before. It made her skin prickle like she was about to break out in fur; her fists closed, and her fingers throbbed like they might grow claws.
There’s too many, Ginger. This is his camp and you’re surrounded by his people. If you change now and lose it, they’ll slaughter you.
“I’ll please you the best way I know how,” she said quietly.
“Ahh. But I do not have the same tastes as your other lovers.” He took his hand off her breast to work it up under her sweater. The sensation of his chapped, cold fingers pinching her nipple was nauseating. “Do you think you can satisfy a man whose desires are… harder?”
“Harder?” she asked, unsettled.
“More… brutal.”
She didn’t even want to imagine. Hunter better scale those cliffs fast.
“I’ll try.”
“Good girl. You, and you, watch the cave front! The rest of you guard the wood fringe. You all know MacAlister is soft as cheese for this girl!” He suddenly gripped her hair—hard—and yanked her close to him, the sinew in his thin arm popping. “You know he’ll come for her. And when he does it may be our chance to finally—ahh, but you’re suing for his life, aren’t you, girl? Maybe we won’t kill him, then. Maybe we can just… blind him, or… lame him, or… banish him, if he’ll respect the banishment.”
“He will!” Ginger said, with convincing anxiety. “Please! Give me a chance to please you and—”
“Alright, girl. One chance.” He laughed, a dark, lewd sound. “Come into my cave.”
“Yes. I will.”
He pulled her hair even harder, hard enough that he came close to ripping some out. “Yes,” he repeated, gazing at her like she was a red, juicy steak. “Yes. You must.”
And then he was dragging her across the clearing, underneath the overhang of a cave, and back into its shallow curtain of shadow. People in the clearing could still see her; the increase in privacy by moving inside was not impressive.
Great.
“Strip, sow,” he ordered, and she heard the arousal in his voice. “You’re not MacAlister’s now! You’re mine, and you’ll do as I say!”
“Yes,” she said, feigning panic. “Yes, I will.”
“Yes, master.”
“Yes, master,” she said, the word tasting bad in her mouth. “I’ll strip.”
She raised her sweater up over her head, but it must not have been fast enough for him, because suddenly he was tearing the clothes off her, growling and snorting.
“You won’t wear clothes from now on, sow. You’re mine! You live to delight me, nothing more, and clothes do not delight me. Whenever I wish it, you’ll spread those lovely legs and offer yourself to me. Won’t you? Won’t you, sow?”
“Yes,” she agreed, still faking distress. Inside, though, she was oddly calm. He didn’t scare her as much as she’d expected him to—as much as he’d used to—and somehow she felt cooler and more collected in his presence than she ever had. Why? “Whatever you say.”
“I say get on your knees. On your knees!” With no warning, he slapped her hard across the face. The crack of it echoed off the cave stone.
The slap shocked her—but it didn’t scare her. All she felt was rage. Rage. A righteous feral rage that turned her vision red. It was a struggle to control it—a struggle to swallow down the she-bear that threatened to surge to the surface and tear him apart—
Her cheek stinging, she sank to her knees.
“Beautiful creature,” Gunnar huffed, his cock at full mast. “You make me hard as steel, sow. No—I change my mind—get off your knees! Stand and undress me. Run your hands over my body. Then there will be time to use that luscious mouth of yours.”
I’d rather run my hands over a George Foreman grill, but okay. She did what he said, standing—he gripped her around the waist and hissed, “Your skin is like cream, sow”—and untying the cloak off his shoulder. She could feel some of his people watching through the cave mouth.
“I hope you know what kind of bargain you’ve struck,” Gunnar huffed as she slid his tunic off his arms. “I hope you know, sow. You’ve been accustomed to soft treatment from MacAlister and Beaumont, haven’t you? Nice kisses, nice touches. Nice pleasure. That’s not what I will give you—oh no, not at all. Although there may be some pleasure for you, yes… rough pleasure. Harsh, spiteful pleasure. If you submit to me fully, you might find some joy in it… a bitch’s joy in breeding…”
He bit her jawline, hard; she stared at the rocky curve of the cave’s ceiling. Anger was hot soup in her stomach, warming her entire body—she had to close her eyes for a minute to keep control.
Watch yourself, Ginj. Don’t let the bear out. Keep him occupied like this. Don’t start a fight.
“I have been without a mate my entire life, sow,” he whispered, licking her throat. Oh, gross! Gross! Gross! Gross! “But I have been with women. Don’t imagine our coupling will be short.”
“No.”
“No, master.”
“No, master.”
She glanced at the little crowd of surreptitiously watching bears near the cave entrance. They need TV on this island. But I guess it’s a good thing these fucks can’t mind their own business, since it means they’re not watching the cliffs. They won’t see Hunter coming.
“You taste like you smell, sow.”
“How is that?” she whispered, trying not to sound terse. He was palming her breast with one hand; the other was an iron bar around her naked waist.
“Vanilla, girl! Fresh-cut vanilla. There’s a sweetness to you, too—something flowery. It’s so feminine, sow, so innocent. I can’t wait to sink inside you. Will it feel as sweet as you smell?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Other men have said so.”
His cock jumped against her navel. “Other men will never have you again. Only me.”
“Yes, master.” She felt his cock throb again, and he groaned.
“You’re mine, sow. You’re finally mine.”
Something changed in the air. Outside the cave, there was a slow, confused stir; she heard a disturbance from the sea-facing side of the heights.
“All mine. I’ll sire cubs off you. I’ll mate you every day. You’ll forget the men who had
you before… you’ll only know, only remember me…”
There was a sudden roar, loud and furious. Ginger’s face snapped toward the cave mouth.
She recognized that roar. Hunter.
“What was that?” hissed Gunnar. His hold on Ginger tightened.
“Let go of me,” she said, not bothering to hide the flat anger in her voice. Her playacting was almost up.
The sound of battle outside was real and growing now: a couple of brown bears rushed the shifters at the cave mouth, paw-swiping and chuffing. She heard a roar she recognized—knew—was Dane’s.
“You? Girl! You tricked me?” Gunnar asked, clenching her arms. “Distracted me? You—”
She spat in his face.
He howled with rage and threw her away from him, onto the cave floor. His eyes went a cold, ghoulish gold.
“Evil little cunt. Snake! I’ll kill you! You dare make mischief with me? I’m a man, sow! A shifter born of countless generations of shifters! I’ll rend you limb from limb!”
“Will you?” she asked, and she felt the fire start in her own eyes. “You dumb fucker! Don’t you know what I am? I’m not a scared little human girl anymore. I’m a she-bear. And I’m angry.”
She saw the realization grow in his eyes—the realization of what she was. And then he shifted into a black bear and loped toward the cave mouth, grunting and head-shaking—running away from her.
Her human thoughts seared away. There was only the animal.
She shifted into a bear. A huge, heavy-bodied, powerful bear—an adult female grizzly, rippling with strength. Roaring, she thundered after him.
Gunnar made it out into the clearing, where his people were being savaged left and right, but she was right behind him—big, dangerous, and infuriated—and everyone in the cliff-top glen could see what happened next.
Her jaw seized the back of his neck.
He bleated and struggled, muzzle foaming, but she lifted him clear off the ground, shook him—and then slammed him back down, hard, in the lady ferns.
His hoarse, strangled barks and panicked squeals stopped abruptly when she pressed her jaw closed as hard as she could. Bone crunched against her teeth.
She opened her mouth and let him drop.
The battle had stalled while everyone around them watched their struggle, waiting to see what would become of Gunnar, the seer-Alpha who had started all this violence. Now they knew his fate.
He was dead.
Chapter 37
“You know someone should’ve done that a long time ago.”
“Yeah, I know.” Ginger scrunched her nose while Hunter wiped her face with a rough, tatty washcloth. She gripped his wrist like she wanted to stop him, but didn’t actually try to push him away. His hot skin felt good under her fingers.
“Don’t blame yourself about what happened. It had to be done. He threatened us all, Ginj.” He dipped the washcloth in the wild spring again, then went to work rubbing blood and muck off her throat.
She tipped her chin up, to help him. “I don’t blame myself. I don’t even feel bad. Is that wrong?”
“No, baby, it’s not wrong. He was an evil son-of-a-bitch and he sure menaced you often enough. You didn’t give him a whirlwind he hadn’t sown.”
“It’s more than that.” She turned her head, so he could get the side of her neck. “I just… there’s no guilt at all. I feel fine, and that can’t be normal. I mean… I killed him.”
Hunter shrugged. “You’re an animal now, Ginj. He was a threat to you and the rival of your men. He put his filthy hands on you. He hurt the clans. What would any animal do to a foe like that?”
“Are you saying I can’t feel empathy, Beaumont?”
“Nah, come on. Obviously you can. I’m just saying… make an enemy of a grizzly and you better watch the fuck out.”
She smiled. Then took his free hand and put it on her naked waist.
“What now, anyway?”
“I dunno, baby. That’s up to you. Are you gonna stay with a clan, somewhere in the wild, or go back to the city?”
“I want to go back to the city.”
He nodded. “Thought you would.”
“But I don’t want to be away from you.”
“Then be my mate. Be my mate, and we’ll never be separated for long. The bond will be too strong.” He leaned in, but she turned slightly so he couldn’t kiss her, even though she wanted that.
“What about Dane? I want to be with him too.”
“So be with him, baby! Be with both of us. We’ll make a triad.”
“You’re… alright with that?” she asked, nuzzling the underside of his jaw. “Are you sure?”
“It’s fine. Ginger, I love you. Among us, love is pretty permanent—I need to be with you, in whatever way there is.”
“But you hate Dane.”
He snorted. “No, I don’t. I don’t hate him. I… respect him. But even if I did hate him, I’d accept him to be with you.”
“I don’t understand how this will work.”
“Well.” He bit her ear; her eyes fluttered closed. Around them, the forest shushed in gentle morning breezes—she could hear a couple of sparrows chirping. Overnight, a southerly wind had carried most of the fire smoke away, and bears were out earthing and damping the last burning tracts in the woods. “First, we have to mate formally. Then you’ll go to the city with Dane, and—”
“Excuse me, ‘formally’? How do bears mate ‘formally’? Steal really, really fancy picnic baskets and climb trees to tune of the Blue Danube Waltz? Then retire to the den, put on some Kenny G…?”
He chuckled into her hair. “Agree to mate with me, and agree to mate with him. Then the three of us will meet and mate together.”
She was speechless for a second, not sure she’d heard right.
“Together?” she whispered finally.
“Mm-hm. I guess it might seem strange by human standards, but it’s our way.”
“You can’t stand each other, Hunter. You and him.”
“We might surprise you. Listen, Ginger.” He put both his hands on her face, lifting it to look at him. “Back there, with Gunnar? You were so brave, and so strong, and so wild. MacAlister and I both saw that, and we know now that one man can’t have you. But we can share you.”
“Hunter…”
“I know that, coming from your world, this is all really new and really confusing,” he went on, his thumb moving on her cheek. “But trust me, it’s natural for shifters. I promise it will feel right.”
She didn’t know what to say. “I love you.”
“I love you too, baby.”
She held onto his powerful arms, confused. “But when I’m in the city with Dane, where will you be? When will I see you?”
“You’ll see me when my trawling season’s over. I’ll come to you. We can stay in the city together, or I can bring you up north with me until it’s time to head out fishing again.”
“I couldn’t just leave a job for that long, though—an entire season in Canada, I mean—”
“Baby, MacAlister has more money than your average small country. You won’t have to worry about things like that if you don’t want to. You don’t have to work again if you choose not to.”
“I don’t—I don’t care about his money,” she said, flustered. “You know that’s not why I—”
“I know. And he knows, too. But it does have advantages.”
“What about you? You won’t have to work anymore, either. Right?”
He snorted. “We’ll see. I’m not his mate, Ginger—you are. I’m just in his triad. And, honestly, I love working on the water. You should let me take you out there someday.”
She ran her hand down his front. “I’d like that.”
None too gently, he nipped her neck. “I want you, Ginger. Fuck, I always want you. Tell MacAlister you’ll mate with me and you’ll mate with him. I want this to be official. I want to be yours, baby, and I w
ant you to be mine. Let’s triad.”
She hummed with pleasure as his teeth worked on her throat. “This wasn’t the kind of wedding I imagined as a little girl, I have to say.”
“No. It’s better.”
She laughed. The sparrows lifted off their spruce in annoyance.
“I’m serious, Ginger.” He bit her almost hard enough to bruise; she loved it. “We’ll be happy. I’ll make you happy. He’ll make you happy. It will be a good life.”
She sighed with enjoyment as he kissed where he’d been biting.
“I believe you, Hunter. I think so too.”
“One thing, though. Will you love me even if I’m not Alpha?”
“Alpha?” she had to laugh, a little; then she kissed him, biting his bottom lip. “I don’t care, Hunter. I don’t care.”
“Good. Dane can have it. I’m sick of fighting—all I want for now is the sea, and you. I want you. He can have the leadership this year.”
She nuzzled him. He didn’t need a title to be a powerful, influential man, or to have her love.
“You have me, Hunter. You have me.”
***
“Dane. Riona.”
“Ginger.” He looked up from what he had been doing: speaking with Riona near one of the celebratory bonfires. Up and down the beach, the sound of drinking, fiddling, and roaring driftwood filled the night.
“Hello, daughter,” Riona said, gazing at Ginger. “You killed the seer yourself, I hear. What a braveheart.”
“Thank you,” said Ginger, flushing. “I didn’t really… plan it.”
“No,” Riona said. “But the animal in you knew what to do. You are truly one of us now.”
Ginger’s flush deepened.
“Pardon me now. I will leave you.” Riona stalked away, off to where Torin was sitting alone and drinking homebrew on the shore rocks.
“How are you, Ginger?” Dane asked lowly. “After everything that’s happened today?”
“I’m fine.” She pulled down the sleeves of Hunter’s borrowed flannel, feeling shy; it was silly since the shirt was far too big on her anyway. Just come out with it. “Dane, I—”
Rescued & Ravished: An Alpha's Conquest (A Paranormal Ménage Romance) Page 39