Rolling her palm over the head of his cock, she finally brought him to the edge of his orgasm. Pre-come dripped from his cock, his breathing became laboured and his hips thrust wildly in the same rhythm as when he had made love to her. So she stopped. Leaving him thrusting wildly against her thigh.
With a groan, he took hold of her hands, pinning them above her head. One of his large hands held them there while he guided himself into her with the other. He filled her with one hard thrust, her sex uncomfortably stretched by his wide girth. She gripped him tightly, and his movements became slow and deliberate as he took them both back to the brink of release.
Still holding her hands above her head, he had free rein to use his mouth on her breasts. Sucking and licking them until she whimpered, her head lolling from side to side, as she fought to keep her senses. In desperation, she raised her knees, curling herself up so that his body brushed her clit. Hal slipped his hand under her and held her firmly in place while he impaled her on his cock. Deeper and deeper he thrust, their earlier teasing building into the most intense of climaxes for them both.
He roared as he came, one hard thrust after another, his cock spurting deep inside her, setting off a chain reaction in her body. She came, her sex gripping him, holding him firm as he brushed her inner walls. With a final shuddering cry, she lay totally spent, her breasts rising and falling heavily. Hal, drained of his seed, collapsed onto her and then rolled onto his side, breathless from their lovemaking.
He laughed quietly. “I think you’ve earned your dinner.”
She slapped him playfully. “I expect more than porridge.”
“I might be able to rustle up some rice and beans.”
“You really know how to woo your mate. It’s a good job I’m so attracted to you, or I might have to go looking for a man who knows how to provide for his woman.”
“I will provide all the sex you want. The food, unfortunately, is still out on the side of the mountain.”
“Rice and beans it is, then,” she said. In fact, she would have eaten anything, within reason. She was starving. “I don’t even know what time it is.”
He looked out of the window and said, “I would guess it’s about four in the afternoon.”
“You can tell that by looking out there?”
“When you live up here all year like I do, you get used to it. This time of year, taking the weather into account, I would say it’s late afternoon. The good thing is that it looks as if the storm has passed, so tomorrow I am going to go out and retrieve the pack.”
“Is it that important?” she asked. She worried what might happen when they left the cabin. Between the weather and Kurt, she would rather stay in the cabin as long as possible. Hidden away safely with him.
“Yes. Unless we can make our way down to Bear Creek, we will run out of food. I know I joked about rice and beans, but there is not enough food here for both of us for more than a month. And the winter storms can last longer than that.”
She pulled her knees up to her chin, hugging them tightly. “I’m sorry I’ve put you in danger. And I don’t just mean the food.”
“Hey, don't worry. I’ll go and get the food, it shouldn't have spoiled.”
“What if they are out there?”
He placed his hand on hers and rubbed her skin to comfort her. “If they didn’t find shelter from the storm, they will be frozen somewhere on the mountain.”
She didn’t really like the sound of that either. After everything her Kurt had done, she should be mad at him, but she found it impossible to wish him dead. “What do you think happened?”
He settled back next to her and put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned into him, feeling the comfort of his warm body seeping into hers. His warmth pushed away the chill of death, which hovered around her at the thought of the wolves lying dead out there in the snow. “I don’t know. When I found you, there was no sign of anyone else. I didn’t see or hear any other soul. Human or wolf. So perhaps they made their way back down. When did you see them last?”
“It’s hard to say. It was so cold. I came through the pass, they were close behind me. Then some snow came away from the cliff and blocked the pass. It split them up, but they hunt as a pack and I could hear them digging each other out.
“That bought me some time, so I ran. But then I heard them howling and I was sure they were getting closer. I put my head down and ran as fast as I could. When the terrain sloped down, I knew that if I ran hard I could get to Bear Creek. I had no idea what I was going to do when I got there, but it just seemed like the only way to escape.”
“They may have gone back to Wolf Valley,” he said. “Once they knew you were out of their reach. There was no way they could have tracked you in the snow; maybe they went back home. Cowardly, but I guess they decided to save their own pelts rather than help you.”
“What if they come back?”
“They won't find you here. There is no way there are any tracks out there leading to here. And the pass is no doubt completely blocked now and will be until a thaw comes. And that won’t be for another couple of months.”
She brushed away her tears. “I don’t want them to die. But while Kurt is alive I might never be able to return to my family.”
“Once they know you are mine, that you are no longer what the tiger wants, surely they’ll leave you alone.”
“I hope so.”
“Hey, let’s eat. Even rice and beans will help you feel better.”
Her stomach rumbled in response. “I can’t believe that I am looking forward to eating something so bland, but I am so hungry it will taste wonderful.”
“You don’t know anything about my cooking. But it shows how optimistic you are.”
“I’m sure you are an expert at survival rations.”
He laughed. “There are times when I think I can’t ever eat another grain of rice. But when it’s all you have, then you eat it.”
They went together to the kitchen, his arm draped protectively around her shoulders. There he pulled out pans and began to cook the rice. He had vastly undersold his culinary skills. After opening a tin of sweet corn and tuna, he had a tasty meal ready for them. Fiona had made coffee and looked in his cupboards to accustom herself to where he stored everything. Although the kitchen was small, it was well organised. It was evident that he had lived here alone for some time. There was nothing feminine about the place.
She closed the store cupboard. He was right that there was not enough food for two of them for more than a couple of weeks at best. She wanted to know one thing. It was a question that had burned in her brain all day. A question she needed the answer to if she was ever going to feel at home here.
“Hal?”
“Hmm,” he said, ladling the food onto plates.
“Why did you choose to live up here all alone?”
Chapter Eleven – Hal
His hand stilled; he had never been asked that question. That’s not to say that people didn’t talk about him and ask it of each other, but to his face, no one had dared. Not surprising when you considered what the answer was. Who would dare to ask someone who had nearly killed another man in a fit of rage why they stayed out of the way, high up in the mountains?
“It’s safer when it’s just me,” he said, wondering if his words would encourage more questions. Of course they did.
“Safer?” she asked, and then added quietly, “for whom?”
“Other people.”
“Other people like me?” A tremor laced the question.
“No. No, not at all. I could never hurt you. Never.” He thought back to the day that had changed his future. Was he still that man? “I don’t think I could hurt anyone any more. But once ... I nearly killed a man.”
“In self-defence?”
He shook his head. “No. At least not directly. It was in a fit of rage.”
“Will you tell me?”
“I was young. People passed through Bear Creek more often. We were drinking; this guy c
ame along, I couldn’t tell you his name, but his face is forever etched in my mind. He had a gun. Said he was going up the mountain to hunt bears. That the population hereabouts had got out of hand.”
He began to serve up the rice and beans, his expression distant as he recollected the day that changed his life. It had been a long time since he had thought about it. In some ways, it still made him experience the same raw emotion. In others, it felt as though it had happened to a different person. As though he was watching it on a TV, with actors playing the parts.
It was before Brad was sheriff; the old man, Franklin Turner, was in charge of the town. He politely told this guy that guns were not permitted in Bear Creek. The idiot told Franklin that he had never heard of such a law and he planned to go out and get himself a bear hide before the night was out. Trouble was, Franklin wasn’t one of them. So he didn’t see the danger, until one of Hal’s sisters was shot.
Prim was only a cub; she had been playing hide and seek in the forest with a bunch of kids from town. Luckily, she was only winged, but Hal had gone crazy. Not in the way a man usually went crazy—this was more of a blood rage. In the middle of pounding this guy into the ground, his bear was unleashed and he nearly killed the man.
Now, no one felt bad for the guy, but it put every other shifter in danger. Brad and the Cartwright brothers, along with Will, helped cover it up. But the only safe way for Hal not to be recognised was for him to go and hide high up in the mountains where no one would find him.
“At first I lived in a cave, about half a mile away from here. Then my friends and family helped me build this cabin.”
“How long ago was that?”
“A couple of hundred years.”
Her mouth fell open. “The man who you attacked is long gone. Why stay up here?”
His appetite had gone, but he sat down at the table, looking at her imploringly. “I couldn’t risk it ever happening again. I don’t know why I couldn’t control my bear. So I couldn’t risk it ever happening again.”
“But you were young. Wolves have trouble in adolescence. The wolf wants to be the master.”
“But what if it wasn’t? What if I can’t control it and I kill someone? I’m stronger than I was then. Much stronger.”
She shook her head. “You wouldn’t hurt anyone. You have the kindest heart, I can tell.”
“Around you, yes, you’re my mate. I couldn’t hurt you, but other people, I don’t know.” It was a question he had asked himself so many times. It was also the reason he had never gone looking for his mate. Because if he couldn’t leave the mountain, he was sentencing her to a life of solitude, too.
“Hal. It doesn’t matter to me.”
“It should.”
“You saved me, you’re my mate. I know everything that entails.” She came to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling his hand close to her breasts and holding him there in an embrace. In return, he put his arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Anyway,” she added, stroking his hair. “You forget I have nowhere to go. And if you hadn’t been here, I would have died out there in the snow.”
“I hadn’t thought about it that way.”
“I think it’s time you let go of the past and we embraced the future, together.”
“Well, right now, our future is made up of cold beans and rice.”
“Yummy,” she said, but she sat down and ate it anyway.
Tomorrow he was definitely going to get the pack, before the food in it spoiled. He didn’t want them eating this for the next two weeks while the snow thawed.
Chapter Twelve – Fiona
“What do you do for entertainment around here?” she asked.
They had eaten their dinner; even cold, it had not been as bad as she expected. Then they had washed the dishes, dried them and put everything away. When he went to each fire and banked them up for the night, she had followed him, content to be in his company. Now they were in the sitting room, their thighs touching as they sat watching the fire dance. Outside, darkness had settled. The wind could be heard trying to get down the chimney and vanquish the warm fire, to leave them cold and miserable. So far, the fire was winning, but the wind didn’t sound as though it was going to give in anytime soon.
He turned to her in earnest. “Honestly?”
She nodded, unsure of what he was going to say, but wanting to hear it anyway. He was such a mystery to her; she longed to find out every detail about him, but she wanted to take it slow. His words from earlier still haunted her. It seemed impossible that a strong, gentle man such as Hal could possibly inflict that much harm on another person. She tried to tell herself he was only protecting his family, his sister, who could have been killed by a thoughtless hunter. But it still left her in doubt. Because she didn’t really know him.
“I’m a bear and in winter, bears like to hibernate.”
“You mean you sleep?”
“A lot. I rise with the sun and go to bed with the sun. Your arrival has kept me up way past my bedtime.”
“Then let’s go to bed,” she said, and on the whole she did mean so that they could sleep. Although being this close to him made her body stir in the most pleasant way. If she only reached out her hand, she could place it on his thigh and move it higher to feel if he was hard. She was sure he would be, or if not, she was could make him hard, very hard. Living up here would be wonderful in so many ways. Long summer days spent making love under the trees and long winter nights holed up in this cabin with only each other’s bodies as entertainment.
“A penny for them,” he said, standing up and offering her his hand.
“Oh, they are worth much more than a penny.”
“Show me,” he said, kissing her fiercely.
“I thought you wanted to sleep,” she teased, pressing her hand against his cock. Yes, just as she imagined. He was hard and she wanted to make love to him so that when he closed his eyes, all he could see, all he could think about, was his mate.
“I have slept enough in the past centuries, I’m sure a few late nights, with the right stimulation, would be good for me.”
“Stimulation...” She ran her hand up and down his length. “What kind of stimulation did you have in mind?”
He groaned against her, pressing himself into her hand. Then he broke away and before she knew what he was doing, he bent down and picked her up. It was the first time she had been carried like this since she was a child. His actions made her feel protected and safe as she rested her head on his shoulder.
Fiona didn’t need to ask where he was taking her. There was only one place they both needed to be. Hal nudged the door open with his hip and placed her down on the bed. She shuffled around to sit on the edge, her hands going to his pants, where she wrestled with his belt. For some reason, her fingers had become uncooperative, fumbling with his buckle when she tried to undo his pants. At last, she managed it, pushing his pants down over his thighs until they dropped to the floor.
Swallowing nervously, she touched his exposed cock with trembling hands. So big, so hard, she took him in her mouth, rolling her tongue over the head until he swayed on his feet, overwhelmed by her touch. Encouraged, she moved her head lower, his cock disappearing into her warm mouth. Hal fisted her hair, folding her in place while he moved his hips, her lips sliding along his cock while she sucked.
“Fuck,” he said, and when she looked up, he had his eyes fixed on the top of her head. Spurring her on, she placed her hand under his balls and squeezed them while her mouth worked him into a frenzy. She tasted the first drop of his pre-come, feeling nervous. What if she couldn’t swallow his seed when he came? Would she gag, making a fool of herself?
But he didn’t let it go that far. “I want to come inside you.”
She let him slide out of her mouth and she couldn't deny him, her sex ached to be filled by him. Leaning over her, he placed his hand under the small of her back and lifted her so that she lay fully on the bed. His lips met hers and he kissed her, his hand brus
hing the side of her cheek. When he pulled back, his eyes caught hers and the depth of emotion there made her heart ache. He loved her. Maybe it was just the bond between them, something out of his control, but when she looked inside herself, she found that his eyes mirrored the feelings welling up inside her.
She placed her hand on his cheek, her thumb rubbing his lips, and then she gently kissed him, before voicing their emotions. “I love you,” she said simply.
His mouth was insistent on hers, his cock pressed against her sex and he showed her with his body what his voice could not express. He took her hard, pushing deep inside her before pulling back out. When he buried himself inside her again, he lay still, unmoving, in her for several moments. She hardly breathed as she felt her sex contract around him and hold him in place. Her inner muscles straining against the invasion.
When he moved again it was slowly, leisurely. He made love to her as though they had all the time in the world. It made her feel as though the heavens could move above them but their love would always remain the same. Steadfast. He didn’t need words, but she understood him all the same. They were one now. Together through whatever might come their way.
His body covered hers, her senses consumed by the touch of him. Slowly, he brought her to the brink of her climax and then sent her over the edge. But he didn’t let her fall alone; he went with her, holding her against him while he cried out, a sound akin to pain.
He hid his face from her, covering his emotions. She kissed his neck and stroked his back, reassuring him. For a man so big and strong, he was insecure in himself. The years spent alone, leaving him at odds with this newfound bond, which tied him to her. She only hoped, with time, he would have the confidence to leave his mountain. Not forever, in fact she liked the idea of living up here with him. Yet there was so much more to life. His friends and family, the people who had helped him so long ago... Did they miss him? Of course they must.
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