by Cecilia Lane
“Home, hm?” he drawled in a voice thick with gravel.
Meghan pressed a hand to her stomach to still the butterflies. “Home. With you and your stupidly big truck and muddy cows and horribly unhealthy food and no good coffee in a thousand miles.”
A deep, unsettled feeling hit the moment she stepped off the plane and it’d only cleared when she had Gray in her ear or reading his messages on her phone. She hadn’t felt like she returned home at any point during her trip because Gray was nowhere near.
“Good, because all I could think about this entire time is when I’ll get to taste you again.”
Meghan inhaled sharply at the naked desire in his deep voice. Even states away and only connected by a phone, it curled heat in her core. “Is… is that so?”
His growl vibrated through her. “You’ve been on my mind since you packed up and drove off. I don’t like you gone. I guess I’ll have to do better to keep you around.”
Meghan dropped her purse on the floor. “And what,” she swallowed the lump in her throat, “does that entail?”
“Your legs over my shoulders, your hands in my hair. Soft moans drop from your gorgeous lips as I bury my face between your legs. God, Meghan, you taste so fucking good. I could lick you until you come all day and all night. I love how wet you get for me, how my fingers slide right into you. Two fingers, and you’re tightening around me. So fucking tight. You can’t keep your hips still and I wrap my arm around you to hold you down.”
She pressed the phone closer to her ear and groaned. She couldn’t put letters together to form words. The way he slipped easily into a casual dominance astounded her even more than her reaction to it.
“Are you in bed?” he asked with a sexy chuckle. “I want you spread out and your hands on your body. I want you touching yourself.”
Meghan climbed onto the bed and fell back against the pillows. With her eyes closed, she could imagine Gray was next to her, teasing by staying just out of touching range. “Are you?”
God, she could see it. She loved watching him touch himself, like he couldn’t handle being apart from her. The hand she slipped under her shirt was his. She tilted her head to the side and felt a puff of air when he answered.
“I’m so hard it hurts.” His breath came quicker. “I’m desperate to be inside you, but I go slow and kiss up your body until you’re writhing and pulling me closer. I wish you could smell just how hot you are. It makes my mouth water.”
She slid her hand lower, past her waistband and into her panties. The first brush of her fingers tightened her thighs in an involuntary twitch. Heat bubbled in her veins with his promises. She felt wicked and just the right amount of dirty as she pushed two fingers inside herself. A soft sound escaped her lips as pressure built between her legs.
“I thrust hard into you, so fucking deep, and you’re ready to take me. I can’t stay still. I want you too bad. I need to make you come, though. Harder. Faster. Fuck, you feel so good.”
Her breath quickened, coming in gasps and pants and she rocked against her fingers and imagined they were Gray’s cock. Not good enough, not by far, but his words in her ear were enough to get her there.
“I’m close, but you are, too. I can feel you tightening around my dick, just like you did around my fingers. Red spreads over your cheeks and down your chest. And your moans, fuck they sound so sexy. Meghan,” he gritted, just as she came. Her body shattered around her fingers and pleasure pulsed on and on.
“One more sleep,” he murmured.
“One more,” she promised.
Chapter 23
Feeling giddy, Meghan pulled off the main road and entered the last stretch before the Bearden turnoff. By the grace of standby seating, she was early. Maybe even early enough to surprise Gray when he finished his shift at the firehouse. She looked forward to being near him again and not simply to follow up on the words they shared late the night before, though the memory of that had her pressing her thighs together and added a stutter to her breath. The fog in her head cleared the closer she got to him. It seemed almost impossible how much she missed him in the few short days she’d been away.
The trip had been a success, however. As much as she hated being away from Gray, the response to her article and interview was worth it. Her agent had been on the phone nearly all day with more requests for appearances and words. Besides Bear’s Den Gazette, a local newspaper in a human town wanted her to run a series of regular articles on their closest neighbors to help raise awareness.
Heck, even her mother left a message while Meghan was in flight. That one rang hollow. Mimsy spoke of not knowing the depths of controversies and the plight of the newly revealed supernatural communities. Meghan saw it for what it was: an attempt to get back in the good graces of someone who stood a chance of making money.
Meghan drummed her fingers against the steering wheel as she neared the sign marking the entrance to the Bearden territory. She was so close she could almost taste it. The sun was making its last stand against the night, and there were only sweeping turns and a handful of miles separating her from her new home.
She eased around another curve in the road and slammed on her brakes. A large SUV stretched across both lanes and blocked her passage. There didn’t look to be any signs of an accident. No other car, no broken glass, but the vehicle didn’t move. She tapped on her horn once and waited.
No response. Not even a taillight flicking on.
Meghan hesitated before she pushed open her own door. Maybe they were lost or needed an extra hand to push to the side of the road. Not that she would be much help, but she would try.
She knocked on the driver’s window. There was no sound from inside. Maybe the driver spun out of control or the battery died or a thousand other unspecified problems caused them to abandon the vehicle.
Dark tint kept her from peering inside but she pressed her face close to the glass anyway. She whipped her phone out of her pocket. Shoot. No reception, so she couldn’t even call for a tow truck.
Frowning, Meghan started to walk back to her car. There was another way into the town. She wouldn’t make it to the firehouse by the end of Gray’s shift, but she would make it home before her original plan.
The SUV doors opened and Meghan spun. Two huge and heavily muscled men stepped out from the front doors. She recognized them as Bentley’s primary bodyguards. As big and threatening as they were, it was the third man that gave her pause.
Hair slicked back and eyes full of hatred, Bentley set his feet on the path toward her.
Meghan froze. Danger radiated off the three men. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end. Her mind flitted from one escape plan to another and in the time she decided she needed to run back to her car and lock herself inside, they had her surrounded.
“If I’d known you were going to be back home, I wouldn’t have had to travel to this backwoods travesty,” he said coldly. “No matter. This serves my plans better.”
Why had he come to her? What could he possibly want? She summoned all her courage and pushed herself to posture in the sassy manner she saw from Leah and Becca. They wouldn’t take crap from anyone.
They also had the advantage of powerful beasts under their skin while she had nothing to defend herself. She tried not to focus on that part.
“Funny, because I assumed the moment I gave back my ring and wrote the words ‘it’s over’ you lost the right to know where and when I traveled.”
Out of nowhere, Bentley’s palm connected with her cheek. His face contorted into a mask of fury. “Do not fuck with me, Meghan,” he growled.
She pressed her hand to her cheek and stumbled back a step, right into the chest of one of his goons. She whirled and tried to get away but they had her caged between them.
“You could have made this easy. I would’ve given you a nice life. All you had to do was sit there and look pretty.” A vein bulged in his temple and his eyes flashed unnaturally. He’d gone beyond cold anger and plunged straight into crazed f
ury.
“Bentley…,” she tried to reason.
“Then you left me for these animals. Is that what you want?” He tugged at the tie around his neck and let it fall to the ground.
Panic rose with a healthy surge of fear. Meghan looked to her left, then to her right. Each stumbling step she took was blocked by one of Bentley’s men. The tearing of cloth pulled her attention back to her dangerous ex. Buttons scattered over the road. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
“I’m giving you everything you want. You want an animal in your bed? You had one all along.” He unlatched his belt and then kicked out of his shoes. “I’m superior to them in every way. They are ruled by their animals. I keep mine on as tight a leash as you will be when I’m done with you.”
His voice dropped. He shrugged out of scraps of shirt. The skin around his forearms and neck were red with irritation. Silver clung to him and Meghan gasped.
He was a shifter. He’d hidden it all along. Pieces of their relationship fit properly for the first time. He didn’t want her changing a thing in his home because that was his territory. He didn’t like the lights to stay on when they slept together, or when they did, it was always from behind. Even his heavy use of cologne was explained by wanting to conceal his scent.
“Oh, Bentley,” she murmured. The amount of self-loathing that went into creating a man like him was simply sad. He was a strictly controlled, Type-A personality and having an inner beast with a different set of rules didn’t suit him.
“When my father discovered the sickness my mother passed on to me, he locked her away in a cage befitting her nature. He raised me alone and taught me how important it was to control my baser instincts. He wouldn’t allow her disgusting animal to ruin our family.” Bentley spoke calmly as he unwound the silver strapped to his arms and neck. Flashing green eyes met Meghan’s just as a growl redoubled out of his throat. “I won’t be made a fool of by a washed-up starlet.”
She raised her hands and took another step away from him. She bumped into one of his men and rebounded before bumping into the other one. She didn’t give either of them her focus. They weren’t a threat at that moment.
“Take the vehicles. Drive hers back to California,” Bentley ordered the bodyguards behind her. “I’ll bring her back with me when we’re done here.”
Without another word, they each strode for a door. Meghan twisted and made a break for her car. That wasn’t acceptable to Bentley’s silent security team. One man blocked her before she made it three steps and locked her on the outside.
Engines turned over and they nudged past her. She slapped the hoods and tried to open doors while Bentley watched with a smirk on his face.
They drove away with her last hope and she was left alone with a shifter smelling strongly of fury and fur.
“Bentley, don’t do this,” Meghan pleaded.
“You were supposed to be mine,” Bentley’s snarled and garbled words pushed out of a twisted face. “You will be mine.”
His eyes closed and his nostrils flared. Bones snapped as the shift slowly rolled through him. It was painful to watch. She’d seen Gray and the others in his clan change, watched children on the street slip from one form to the next. Bentley’s shift was nothing like a shifter comfortable in his own skin.
He dropped to all fours. His bones continued to snap. He craned his neck to meet her gaze. One more snarled word passed his lips. “Run.”
She didn’t need to be told twice.
A bear burst out of Bentley with an angry roar. Meghan pivoted and threw herself down the slope and away from the road. Anything to put obstacles between her and the bear after her.
“Help!” she screamed. Anyone in their right mind would take the side of a woman running from an enraged beast. The rest could be sorted out later. Why and what he planned once he caught her didn’t matter as she pushed herself faster down the slope and through the trees and brush.
Bentley would pay, but only if she survived.
“Help!” she screamed again. She had to make it into the territory. There were patrols running the edge. She needed to be loud enough for them to find her.
The bear behind her was faster. His fur didn’t tear or bleed like her legs against thorns and broken branches. His stride was longer than hers. The rabid grunts and huffs behind her kept her moving forward.
The slope fell away suddenly and Meghan couldn’t catch herself. She tumbled over the side, bouncing and twisting end over end until her head smacked against a rock and the world fell black.
Chapter 24
Gray paced from his bedroom to the living room, circled the kitchen, and made another loop. Meghan’s phone rang without an answer and then went to voicemail. Again.
She should have called him when she landed at the airport. She should have been home hours ago. But his phone never rang and her car didn’t pull into the spot next to his truck.
The first hour made him anxious but he tried to keep it under wraps. Maybe there was a problem with the plane and they were delayed. But a quick search of the flight status showed it landed at the nearest airport. Maybe something kept them on the tarmac, but that excuse failed when the flight went back into the air to continue on its journey. He clawed back his unease and explained to himself her phone was simply off, she forgot to charge it, and she’d be home soon. That, too, was proven wrong when he dialed the number and it rang like normal.
And she still didn’t show up at his door.
The hours slipped by without answers and a pit formed in Gray’s stomach. He reached out to Judah, but the Chief of Police had no record of any accidents nearby. Gray searched the local news and called the nearest hospitals. No one had any report of a little sports car crushed in a wreck or woman matching Meghan’s description entering their emergency room.
With a frustrated groan, Gray threw himself onto his couch. There had to be an explanation, something that he couldn’t see. She’d sounded so happy the night before. Her voice had been full of promise. He needed to feel her in his arms. He wanted to wash the travel off her skin and sate them both before he brought up the subject of mates.
She made her choice. She said home was with him. That was his green light to bring up exactly how he planned to devote himself to her for the rest of their lives.
There was no one else for him. No one could calm his bear like her. She soothed the man and the beast and she needed his mark on her skin. He didn’t even care if she wanted it hidden under her clothes so she could still go on camera. He’d know it was there, any male who scented her would know she belonged to another. He wanted her to be his mate.
He pressed the heels of his hands to his eyes and willed his phone to ring or the gravel outside to crunch underneath tires. The uncertainty and nearing twenty hours awake was making him lose his shit.
No call. No crunch. No fucking clue where she could be.
He woke with a snarl working its way out of his throat. A quick roll twisted him off the couch and smashed him into the coffee table. The wood splintered underneath him. His limbs and head felt too heavy like he’d gained an extra ton. Claws dug into the floor. He needed out. Out of the worried thoughts, out of the cramped cabin, and underneath the night sky. It was the only place he could run and hunt. Their mate needed to be found and they couldn’t begin searching while locked away in human entrapments.
Gray snatched back control before his bear could shove him completely out of his mind. He couldn’t black out and lose himself entirely. Not when he needed to be aware of his surroundings. His bear worked on instinct, but thought was required. As much as he wanted to act, he needed to think.
His shift halted painfully. He gritted his teeth and fought through the agony. Thick bones shrank back to human size. His muscles tore and reattached where the man needed them, not the beast. The bear snarled and clawed at his insides, but Gray shoved and fought harder. For Meghan.
He lay on his side among the wreckage of his living room and tattered clothes. His entire
body shook with the effort to keep to his human side and a shift reversed so soon. His bear roared and snapped in his mind. His muscles ached and would ache until he rested.
Rest. That was the problem. Meghan wasn’t there to calm him. Her scent was fading from his cabin and he didn’t have a promised return to keep him sane. Without Meghan, he was reverting back to the out-of-control bear that was a threat to everyone around him.
On shaking arms, he shoved himself upright. There were others he could contact. Her mother might have some word. Her agent. Someone at the studio where she went for her interview. Someone had to have an idea of where she was.
He sifted through the wreckage and breathed a sigh of relief when he found his phone still intact. He didn’t care who he had to yell, curse, or coerce, he was going to get answers.
Her mother’s number was easier to find than he expected. Mimsy was listed as the sole proprietor of a talent agency that looked badly in need of a website update. The number listed went to voicemail but had the option of being forwarded directly to her in case of emergency. Without hesitation, Gray punched in the numbers and let the phone ring.
He didn’t even let her finish her sleepy pleasantries meant for a client. “Where is Meghan?” he demanded.
There was a pause and he could practically hear the gears turning in Mimsy’s head. “Who is this?” she sneered.
“It’s that creature you demanded she leave.” He passed a hand over his face. Fuck. He meant to be nicer but he was too raw for playing nice. “She was supposed to be home hours ago and I can’t reach her. Have you heard anything?”
“I suppose that’s your answer,” Mimsy hissed. “My daughter finally came to her senses and doesn’t wish to see you. Take the hint, freak.”
“She’s there? She went to you?” His bear rumbled in his chest. Something was wrong. She wouldn’t abandon them. Nothing made sense.
“She begged me to get her away from you animals. Leave her alone and don’t call us again.”