Taming Her Hybrid Beast

by Jenika Snow

  Roake was shifted in his seat, his body facing her now, and that animalistic sound coming from him so powerfully she felt the vibrations all the way down to her bones. She swore his eyes glowed in the darkness, but it wasn’t so much that as that his nocturnal animals rose more swiftly to the surface. It was the light reflecting off of them, showing her that this shifter was truly not like any other animal she had come across.

  “Roake?” She said his name softly, not knowing where he was in his head right now. “Is everything okay?” Fear should have been at the forefront of her mind, but instead she felt hot, and not because of the temperature outside. She was wet between her thighs, and her nipples were hard. All it took for her body to completely take over like she had no control over herself was being close to Roake and having him look at her like … that. “Why are you looking at me that way?” she asked, because Emma didn’t like the silence that was between them.

  “Like what?” Roake said so low that she had to strain to hear what he said. “Like I am about to do something that I shouldn’t, because then it’ll mean I will have to fight myself to leave.”

  “You don’t have to leave.”

  He slowly shook his head. “But I do, Emma.” He leaned again, and she could smell the minty toothpaste he had used. “I don’t even know you other than you’re my mate, but what I do know is that I can’t guarantee is that my human side is stronger than my animals. They’re fucking wild, Emma, too wild for me to control right now, and I don’t want you around that danger.”

  “You wouldn’t hurt me, Roake.” He was telling her that he could, but in her heart, in her animal’s soul, she knew he couldn’t, and wouldn’t, hurt her. She was his mate, that one person bound by this invisible and unbreakable bond. She was the one to lean in close this time, but he didn’t move away. The attraction was undeniable, and she didn’t want to fight it, but she also reminded herself that this man was wounded physically, and that he needed to rest. But Emma couldn’t pull away from him, and couldn’t stop herself from wanting him to kiss her more than she wanted to breathe.

  And then before she could react to what Roake was doing, he had his hand in her hair. He tightened his fingers around the strands until this sting of pain filled her, and then slanted his mouth on hers. The taste of him was potent and intoxicating, and she couldn’t stop the soft moan that came from her. The animal inside of her was going wild, pacing and purring, trying to get out and be with her mate. She scented the lion and tiger inside of Roake, knew the beasts were anxious to mate with her, and all Emma wanted to do was submit to this man. Roake stroked his tongue along her bottom lip, and then did the same with the top lip.

  “Touch me, Emma, if even for this one time,” Roake said against her mouth, and then opened wider to kiss her like he was dying for it.

  She grabbed his arms, felt how tense he was, and moaned once again. He might not leave tonight, or even tomorrow, but he would soon. There were only so many days Roake would stay here, because despite the fact he was weak and needed time to heal, Roake was definitely a male that lived by his own rules. But could she give herself to this male that would just leave her far sooner than she wanted? Did she really care right now?

  No.

  She kissed him back, stroked his tongue with hers, and wanted so much more. She wished she could be under him right now, nothing covering their bodies, nothing stopping them from being together, and no injuries stopping them from getting as animalistic as they really wanted to. The sound of footsteps drew her out of the explicitly charged encounter, and she forced herself to pull away. It was hard.

  “Emma.” Her brother’s voice came through the screen door, and although she didn’t try to hide what they had just done, especially when they were still so close together, she knew Jason would have been able to scent the desire in the air.

  She looked over her shoulder, could see his profile through the screen, and swallowed past the lump n her throat. “Yeah?”

  Jason was silent for a moment, but he didn’t start in on his overbearing bother bullshit. “I just wanted you to know that I’ll be in the living room with Annabelle watching a movie.” He was silent after he said that, and didn’t come out onto the porch. “You’re okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.” She stared at him until he left them alone again, and then she exhaled.

  “Your brother doesn’t like us mated,” Roake said beside her.

  “I know, but he doesn’t get a say in that.” She was staring in front of her, but she could still feel his lips on hers, felt the tingling sensation that encompassed her entire being. She looked at him again, but she had felt his gaze on her before she noticed he watched her. “I liked the kiss, Roake. It felt right.” She wanted to change the subject and get off the topic of her brother. This was about them, about their mating, and they were still in this limbo about everything.

  “I liked it, too, but I should have controlled myself, Emma.”

  Her heart started beating hard and fast, because she knew that had been a perfect first moment with her mate. But the tone in his voice had her heart dropping to her belly.

  “And that was what I was talking about, Emma. My animals could have taken over right then, and my stability is broken right now.” He stood and stared down at her, and the intensity she felt in that stare had the hairs on her arms stand on end. But before she could say anything in response, if she could have said anything, he brushed a piece of hair away from her cheek and then left her alone on the porch. And there she sat, going over how her life had turned into this huge clusterfuck in twenty-four hours.

  Chapter Seven

  He was a bastard. No, he was worse than a bastard. He had just kissed the fuck out of his mate, and then left her alone feeling all those emotions. He wanted to just get the fuck out of here, leave, and let her live her life. He’d never be good enough for her, never would let her have a full life because his heart was full of vengeance. He needed to find O, and although he could have assumed the motherfucker had died in the blast, Roake knew better. O would have hauled his cheetah ass out of there why he still had time. He thought about what Emma said about two shifter males that were trained in finding people. Could they help them? It was somewhere to start, even if Roake had never had others help him before. This situation was on a totally different plane, though.

  Roake headed for the room that was designated his, and shut the door behind him. He paced back and forth, feeling his animals rise up despite his wounds and weakness. He knew it would be a few days before he was healed enough to shift. He could leave now, and with Annabelle, but that would cause issues with her mate. And her mate was one that would most like stir some shit up because he was one territorial asshole.

  The knock on his door had him stopping and facing it. He knew it was Annabelle before she pushed the door open and poked her head around it.

  “Roake, is everything okay?” She didn’t move any further into the room, because most likely she knew how on edge he was right now. He might not be able to shift, but fuck, he could feel the wild energy inside of him that he was trying hard to keep under control.

  The scent of Jason was close, but then again Roake knew that because the clouded leopard had seen his mate, he wouldn’t let her get too far out of his sight. Especially since Roake was here. It didn’t make a difference that Roake had helped her escape and they had been trapped in that fucking pit of despair for all that time. A mated male was a powerful fucking thing.

  “Can I come in?” Annabelle asked softly.

  He nodded, but before she came inside she looked over her shoulder, presumably at Jason. Roake was annoyed, but then again everything got on his nerves. He just needed to heal and shift, because not being able to be in his animal form for a year was far too long. His beasts were itchy to get out, and although he had control right now, he didn’t know how much longer that would last. He was free, and that was a heady sensation.

  She came inside the room, but didn’t shut the door, and Roake kn
ew it was because she wanted to make sure Jason didn’t get belligerent. “You walked through the house, and I could tell something was wrong,” she said softly.

  He wasn’t going to talk about this with her, because he didn’t want to talk about it. Besides, she had enough on her plate with trying to find her mom, and now with finding her mate. “Nothing, Annabelle, I’m just dealing with my own shit.”

  She nodded and started fidgeting with her hands.

  “Emma said you tried getting a hold of your mom?” He scrubbed a hand over the back of his head.

  She shook her head. “Yes, but the number was disconnected.” She shrugged and leaned against the wall by the door. “But Jason said they know a couple of guys that can track her down.” They stared at each other for a moment, and then Roake nodded.

  “Well, I really hope we can get some answers for you.” And he hoped he could track down the fucker that had treated them as nothing more than his test subjects.

  She smiled, and although he could sense that she was starting to heal slowly, he also saw this dark desperation inside of her. This was just too much for her in such a brief amount of time.

  “Well, I was about to go watch a movie with Jason.” She smiled again. “Would you like to join us?”

  “No, I think I need to rest up.”

  She nodded. “Okay well if you change your mind you know where to find me. It’s been forever since I’ve seen a movie, heck, even watched TV.”

  “I know.” Now it was his turn to smile, but it was totally fucking forced. She nodded and turned to leave him alone. Once the door was shut again he started pacing. He was going to tear through his skin if he didn’t shift soon, and then there would be a lot of fucking problems.

  ****

  Emma stared out the kitchen window at the barn that was about six hundred yards away. Jason had gone into town to talk to Declan, the grizzly bear shifter that had been in the SIL, or Shifter Intelligence League, years ago, and Maverick, a former hit man for the shifter mafia. Now they were mated to Sweet Water women and did private work there. She washed the last dish and placed it in the rack to dry, and then ran her hands over the rag. Two days had passed since she had brought Roake and Annabelle back to the farm. Annabelle seemed to be acclimating and healing well, and Roake was so healthy that it was almost unbelievable. But there was still this distance when Emma looked in her face. Jason was also having a hard time in keeping his distance from his mate, but of course he’d never talk to Emma about it. There was just this scent of raw and wild need that came from her brother, and it was clear he was having a difficult time. But Annabelle needed time to heal on the outside and on the inside as well. In fact, Emma had noticed Jason was working out more, and would leave at night the past couple of evenings as soon as the sun set. When he had returned hours after she had smelled his animal strongly, and knew he had gone for a run, presumably because he had been wound too tight and needed to shift. Emma had no idea how it would work out between Jason and Annabelle, because first and foremost Annabelle needed to find her mother. She hoped Declan and Maverick could help out in that regard. Emma had also called and told Luke that everything was fine, and despite his insistence that he could come to the farm she was able to talk him out of it. Emma might think Roake and Annabelle needed to see a medical professional, but until they actually wanted someone here she needed to respect their wishes.

  She stared at the barn, knew that she shouldn’t do what she was about to do, but she couldn’t stop herself. Ever since she’d shared the kiss with Roake he had kept his distance. She thought about Roake healing again. Emma had to wonder if him being a hybrid helped in the recuperating process. He did have two animals inside of him, two strong and alpha animals that were surely giving him the strength he needed to get better.

  She set the rag down and went to move out of the kitchen and into the foyer. She stared at the front door for several seconds, knew that Annabelle was resting in her room, and that if she wanted to speak to Roake alone she needed to do it now. Emma left the house and headed toward the barn. She had no clue why he had gone in there, but the animals on the property were calm, so she knew Roake was, too. It didn’t take her much time to reach the large red wooden doors. She pulled one side open, and the scent of hay and manure filled her nose. It took only a second for her vision to adjust to the shadows, but once it did she saw Roake standing beside Mop-Top. He leaned against the stable, his thick arms hanging over the wooden slats, and the sun coming through one of the windows and slashing across his body. He was a big man, easily six and a half feet tall. When she had brought him back to the house, even if it was only two days ago, he had seemed so frail in body even if strong in form. Clearly he had been malnourished, but these last forty-eight hours something in him had changed on the outside. His appetite had been ferocious, his strength growing exponentially right before her eyes, and she had watched the change in his body take shape. He certainly wasn’t at optimum health yet, but he also was already so muscular it was startling. What would he look like when he was fully healed?

  She swallowed, felt herself grow warm and moist at the thought, and dug her nails into the wood door. He slowly turned just his head her way, and their gazes locked. Even from the distance she saw the way his nostrils flared, and this blush stole over her entire body at the thought that he knew she wanted him desperately. Since he had come into her life it had been like this fire had started inside of her, and it slowly burned brighter and hotter the longer she was in his presence. Even if he were to leave she knew this need to be with him, to give herself to him, wouldn’t leave her. This was what it meant to have a mate, and it was this never-ending feeling of desire, pulling tighter and harder until she felt like she couldn’t breathe because of it.

  “You shouldn’t be here, Emma,” he said softly, but with enough meaning that she knew he was trying to push her away. He faced Mop-Top again, and the mare came closer and butted her head against his arm. The corner of his mouth kicked up, and he lifted his hand and ran it through the horse’s mane.

  Emma moved into the barn, ignoring his warning, and that had really been what it was. She stopped beside him and stared at the horse. “Hey, girl.” She lifted her hand to touch Mop-Top’s muzzle, and her fingers touched Roake’s when the mare turned her head away. Emma’s heart started pounding hard, and she glanced at Roake. He wasn’t looking at her, but his jaw was clenched and he had taken his hand away from her and now had it in a tight fist.

  “Emma, I have been keeping my distance.” He turned and looked at her, his jaw set hard, and his eyes looking cold and dark. “And to say that it is fucking hard is an understatement. That is what we both need.”

  “Don’t tell me what I need,” she said softly. She knew in her heart that when a man like Roake said something he probably meant it.

  He had looked away from her, but now he was staring at her once more, and despite trying to act like he was stronger than the mating call, she saw how much he wanted her. He was good at masking it, damn good, but being his mate meant she could pick up on things that others wouldn’t have been able to.

  “Tell me you don’t want me, Roake.” She faced him, feeling this heat bounce between them. “Tell me that you don’t want to touch me, kiss me, and take me because your animals want it as much as you do.” She had never been so bold with her comments, but she wasn’t a child, knew what she wanted, and was sick of trying to pretend like everything would be okay if she let him walk out of her life.

  “What I want doesn’t matter, Emma,” he said in this calm voice. “I’m no good for you. I’ve said that already.”

  “You don’t get to say what is good for me, Roake. I get to decide that.”

  He faced her now. “I want revenge, baby. I want to find the man that did this to Annabelle and me, and I want to tear him apart, make him bleed, and have his screams be my white noise. I want to be the one that stops him from doing this to another hybrid.”

  She didn’t know how to respond. He
had a lot of rage inside of him, and she knew that as a male shifter, and especially one that had been betrayed and hurt, he wouldn’t rest until he got exactly what he wanted. And that was someone’s head on a spike. She had been watching the news on the explosion, knew that they had pulled bodies out from underground, that there had been shifters even, but aside from them continuing to say “The investigation was being continued” she didn’t know much else.

  Would they come looking for Roake and Annabelle? Would they know they were even here? She hadn’t told Luke why she wanted him to come over to the farm that night, just that she needed him. No one knew they were here, but was that enough? Maybe it was best for them to move on? That thought had this tightening sensation in her chest making it hard to breathe. What if his anger and hatred were so encompassing that she couldn’t live with it, that she couldn’t have the man—her mate—she wanted so desperately she could taste it, calm enough to live a normal life?

  “I can see on your face that in your heart you know me leaving might just be the best fucking idea for the both of us,” he said in this guttural voice that hurt her more than it pleased her.

  Anger filled her at all the things that passed through her mind, and without thinking and just letting her emotions and animal take control, she grabbed his head with both of her hands, and slammed her mouth down on his. He made this ompf sound, maybe because she startled him, or maybe because she had used so much force that he slammed back against the opposite side of the stable. She felt wild and pressed her mouth harder on his. The salty flavor of her tears wasn’t because she was sad, but because she was so damn angry, and the situation pissed her off to no end. She wanted him to admit to her that it would be hard for him to leave. He took a hold of her hair with one hand and wrenched her head back. There was a flash of pain from the action, but the pleasure that she also felt took the front seat and she moaned out loud. His nostrils flared, and his pupils dilated so much that there was only inky blackness looking back at her now.