by T. S. Ryder
"But you did what you thought was best for me. I did what I thought was best for me, too. And I'm so sorry." He cupped her face. "I never stopped loving you, either. Throughout these past six years, I wondered if I ruined my chances with my mate because of my pride… Did I?"
Amanda shook her head. She rolled, pressing her mouth against his. The familiar sensation of sparks heating her blood surged back and she moaned, pressing her body against his. His hands tangled in her hair as he answered her urgency with his own. He rolled, pinning her under his body. Their lips parted—
"No." Jace scrambled away, shaking his head. "No, I can't. I'm sorry."
Amanda lay there, stunned.
"Half an hour ago I was dating another woman. It's not respectful to her or fair to you to jump into this so quickly." Jace inched forward again. "I'm sorry."
Amanda pushed herself up, her cheeks heating. "I understand."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. We'll get there, Jace." She found his hand and squeezed it. "We just need a little time. We should get back to camp now."
Jace squeezed her hand back. "Thank you, Amanda."
"For what?"
"Being you."
"Oh. Well, in that case, thank you for being you, too. And I love you."
Jace smiled. "You don't know how good it is to hear you say that again."
"Probably as good as it feels to say it. I love you."
"I love you, too. But you're right. We need to get back to camp. Clarissa isn't the outdoorsy type… will it bother you if I sleep in the tent with her tonight?"
Amanda shook her head. "I know you love me. That's all I need right now."
Chapter Ten
True to Clarissa's word, she left the next day. Logan asked where she was going, but was satisfied with the simple answers he got. Unlike his parents, he didn't need any prompting to happily fall into the new dynamics that the three of them had. They stayed out in the bush for a week, just getting to know each other better, until their food ran out. Logan would have gladly stayed and forged, but Amanda was concerned with the amount of school he had missed already, and they packed up and headed home.
She had a dozen missed calls from Betty, who eagerly told her every scrap of gossip related to Clarissa's supposed infidelity. The media storm lasted for several months, but just as Clarissa had hoped, the pack and humans who lived in town had an instantly improved view of Amanda and Jace's relationship. Instead of people stopping her in the grocery store to accuse her of trying to destroy the pack, they were now asking when the mating ceremony would be, or if she was pregnant, or assuring her that Logan would be perfect as the next Alpha.
During this time, Jace built the house he promised for Amanda, and the three of them quietly moved in together (much to Betty's dismay; when Amanda was packing the last of her boxes, the human tearfully declared she would never again have a housemate as good as Amanda). By the time the papers started publishing that Jace and Amanda were living together, they had been doing so for so long that the pack didn't so much as bat an eye.
The official ceremony where the Alpha leadership of the pack was passed from Jace's father to Jace happened without much global attention. The town was in a happy frenzy for days, but soon enough everything settled into a new normal. And it was good.
***
Amanda sat in bed, a book on her knees as Jace entered the room, scrubbing his hair dry after a shower. She didn't bother pretending to read the book as she admired the contours of his body. His physique was amazing, everything from the sculpted pecs to his six-pack. She loved him just as much as the gangly, pimply teen as she did now looking at him as a heartthrob, but the improved view didn't hurt anything, either.
Jace grinned at her, moving the book off her knees. Amanda's heart rate spiked. There was something that she needed to tell him, but it looked like he had an idea that she wasn't going to say no to… His lips brushed hers gently as he crawled onto the bed, caging her with his body, leaning her back against the headboard.
"God, I missed you," he whispered, nipping at her lower lip.
"We've been together all day."
"No, I mean the past six years." Jace's gaze warmed with love as he cupped her face with a hand and kissed her again. "If I could go back and change things, I would never have left you behind."
"You've said that." Amanda smiled at him. "All is forgiven, my love."
Jace buried his face into her neck, sending shivers down her spine. Amanda hummed in satisfaction, digging her fingers into his scalp, pulling him closer. It took a few months of getting to know one another again before they first allowed themselves to abandon themselves into passion again, but now it was a regular occurrence–making up for lost time.
"I love you," Jace said, for probably the hundredth time that day. He was definitely making up for lost time. "I've always loved you."
"I love you, too." Amanda ran her hands down his back. "I love you more today than I did yesterday."
"Why?" Jace pulled back, looking worried. "What did I do yesterday?"
"Nothing." Amanda shook her head. "I was just trying to be romantic."
"Oh." Jace laughed softly, returning to her neck. His hands worked their way under her nightgown, tugging it up over her head, leaving her bare to his gaze. His hands roamed her body, igniting a fire deep inside of her, and Amanda returned the favor, loving the way his smooth skin felt so warm under her fingers. She didn't think she would ever get used to how right she felt when she was with him.
The fires grew hotter as Jace kissed her collar and moved lower, stroking her thighs with a soft touch until Amanda let her legs fall open. She grasped him as his fingers slipped over her skin to her pleasure center, answering stroke for stroke until they were both undulating towards each other, gasping and writhing while their lips pressed together and parted.
"Always so good," Jace sighed.
"Always," Amanda agreed, rolling her hips towards him, indicating she was ready.
Jace chuckled at her impatience, kissing her breasts and continuing to use his fingers for several moments until she was trembling on the edge, almost ready to beg.
He slid inside her easily; they found their rhythm without effort, the fires in their blood mixing together, making both of their bodies hot. Everything felt tight. Pleasure blinded Amanda until it was too much and she bowed her body towards her mate, dragging her fingers over his back and locking her ankles over his hips as she pulled him deeper inside her. Jace made a choking, growling noise, kissed her hard, and they plunged together, bodies snapping back and forth, cries mingling as their rhythm grew haphazard.
Eventually, they stilled and shared a tender, chaste kiss while their bodies were still twined together.
"I love you," Jace groaned. "I wish I could stay inside you forever."
"I do, too. But then who would take care of Logan and the pack?"
Jace flicked his tongue over her collarbone. "Speaking of which… I'm certain that you're my mate."
"Me, too."
"So?" Jace leaned back on his elbows, raising a brow at Amanda. "How about it, Mandy?"
"How about what?"
"We do a mating ceremony for the pack. Maybe a wedding, too, for the media to report on so that we don't have paparazzi trying to break into the mating ceremony. I officially name Logan as my successor, and then we all live happily ever after."
Amanda considered for a moment. Jace was the Alpha, so after the official ceremony, his mate would be recognized as the Alpha female by the pack. He had already been easing her into her new responsibilities. She wanted to continue working, but with everything she was going to have to do for the pack, it meant she had to cut back her hours at the office. On the other hand, she had taken up a position as a receptionist for Jace, which meant she wasn't just going to be a housewife or arm candy at important ceremonies.
"Mandy?" Jace looked a little worried. "Are you okay?"
"Yes. I was just lost in my thoughts. I never thought that the w
hole ceremony thing was going to be necessary for me, but with your position… I'll adjust to being in the public eye. So, for our mating ceremony… I would like it to take place out in the bush."
Jace grinned and kissed her. "Sounds wonderful. And for the—"
"Before we start talking more shop talk, I have something to tell you," Amanda grinned at him, running her fingers through his hair. "I'm pregnant."
Jace's eyes lit up. "Really?"
Amanda nodded.
A fiery kiss answered her. Amanda laughed into Jace's mouth as he held her tighter, kissing her as though he was never going to let her go. Which he wasn't. Never again would they be separated from each other. Amanda pulled him closer, closing her eyes.
My mate, my love, she thought. My forever.
*****
THE END
The Bear Detective's Mate
Description
A personal assistant who comes under attack PLUS a hot Bear detective assigned to protect her PLUS a conspiracy they have to uncover!
Curvy Ana Medina is sick of unlucky romances and focuses on her job - being the PA to a Senator fighting for Shifter Rights. But they have enemies and when there’s an assassination attack on the Senator and herself, she is put in protective custody.
Detective Joseph Baker has found his mate. At least, that’s what his Bear tells him. Joseph doesn’t want a mate, but no matter how he tells his Bear to shut up, he can’t help himself when he’s around her. He’s supposed to protect her, but her luscious curves, delicious scent and mocha-kissed skin call out to him.
Police rules forbid intimacy between the two, which proves to be a challenge. All Ana can think about is the muscles that ripple all over him, his dress shirt that stretches over his perfect pecs and those buttons strained to keep it closed. Too bad he’s proving himself to be a class-A jerk.
Joseph tries to protect her any way he can but the attackers will stop at nothing and Ana and Joseph have to work together to uncover a conspiracy, even if that means that Joseph has to pretend to be her boyfriend.
Can they resist the undeniable attraction to each other? Will they stay alive under the string of attacks? And can they find out who the enemy is?
Chapter One
Ana Medina turned off the video camera. Her boss, Senator Seth Fischer, was practicing the speech he would make before parliament the next day and had elected to record it so he could hear for himself how it sounded.
Everything needed to be perfect if he was going to convince the other senators that the proposed Shifter Registry was unconstitutional and posed a risk to shifter lives. It could neither be too harsh nor too mellow; he could not attack his opponents or even appear to be doing that or they'd argue his arguments were against a straw man and not the real issues; he had to deliver it passionately, but not emotionally.
It was a headache, but Ana was more than happy to help him perfect his delivery. After all, the Shifter Registry Act was just one step away from a Shifter Detainment Act and she wasn't going to just sit around and watch American citizens have their hard-earned rights stripped from them. Ana wasn't a shifter herself, but that made little difference to her. People were people.
"Let's see the playback," Seth said. He sat in his chair, loosening his tie. "Politics are going to be the death of me."
"You're making the world a better place," Ana replied comfortingly. "Little shifters all over the country are watching you on television, thinking that they can be anything they want to be, because you are standing up to the voices that would tramp them down."
"Thank you, Ana. It means a lot, especially these days." He smiled at her.
But before she could return the smile the window shattered. Glass sprayed every which way. A flower of blood bloomed on Seth's shoulder.
Ana acted on instinct, throwing herself over the senator's desk to tackle him to the ground. Bullets ripped holes in the wall where his head had been and Ana spread her body out over her boss, trying to shield as much of him as possible. He tried to shift her off him, but she held tightly. A PA was replaceable. A senator with Seth's popularity was not.
The door burst open and two security guards rushed in. Both zeroed in on the window, standing on either side with their guns drawn, but the bullets had stopped. Not that their handguns could do much against a sniper rifle. One of them drew the blinds, blocking the room from the shooter.
It was only then, after the immediate danger was over, that Ana actually realized what had happened. It wasn't some random shooting, it had been as assassination attempt. Her limbs began shaking and her throat went utterly dry.
Somebody had just tried to kill the senator. She had no doubt that they would have had no problems killing her, too, if she happened to be in their way.
"Are you okay?" Seth gripped his arm but peered up at Ana with worried eyes.
"I'm fine."
She realized she was still laying over him and pulled herself up. If she and Seth didn't have the brother-sister relationship that they did, that could have been very awkward.
"You were hit," Ana said. "We need to get you out of here and bandage that up. I'm going to call 9-1-1."
She fished her cell phone from her pocket and reported what had happened, still crouched behind the desk with her boss, peeking warily at the window. But with the blinds drawn and the two guards in the room, it seemed like the attack was over.
Seth winced as he clutched his injury. He attempted to stand and Ana had to loop her arm around his waist to support him. She might be in shock, but from the pallor of his face and the fact that he had been shot, Seth was clearly off worse. He wasn't letting that stop him, though.
"Ward, call up the captain of the seventh precinct. He's an old friend of mine and I want his team handling this."
One of the guards nodded and whipped out his phone. Ana helped Seth to another room, this one without windows. The guards cleared everybody out of the surrounding rooms, just in case. Ana helped Seth lay on the floor and went to her desk of get her first aid kit.
Until the buildings around them were cleared and it was determined that there were no more snipers in the area, Seth wouldn't be leaving the building. She had to get the bleeding under control.
Snipers.
Ana choked back bile. Just our luck that there would be an assassination attempt now when shifter tensions are running so high...
"Do you think this is going to help my case?" Seth asked as she finished wrapping his arm with a bandage. "Assassination attempts on a senator… we might be able to swing a few fencers to our side on their American pride alone."
"If anybody can do it, it's you."
They were safe now, and that Seth was still thinking politically helped her know he was going to be okay. It was only an arm shot, after all.
"So you want to work it into your speech? Maybe replace the cultural section?"
Seth shook his head. "I'll give the media a separate address about this. We will not be intimidated and all that. Reminding people that the way Western culture sees shifters is fairly rare is important to refute the necessity of the Registry."
Ana nodded.
Different cultures the world over had different approaches to how shifters were seen, but during the European colonialization period, the attitude that they were devil-worshipping witches took hold, and shifters were slaughtered wholesale–burned at the stake, hanged, hunted down. It was sickening, but what was even worse was that there were still people out there with that attitude.
Overall, though, the tides were changing, especially with other countries like China decrying the treatment of shifters in America. Seth's election was proof of that. He was only the third shifter to ever be elected to a senator's position and had so far served longer than either of his two predecessors.
It helped that before he came out as a shifter, he was an insanely popular movie star. Admittedly very hot, he was the epitome of the all-American man. He had even been used as the poster boy for an anti-shifter group before he
came out as a shifter. This wasn't the first attempt on his life since he went into politics, fighting for shifter rights.
But he had been elected and that meant a lot.
Of course, the fact that he turned into a golden retriever, man's best friend, probably helped his cause. Ana doubted he would have been so successful if he had been, say, a tiger or even a deer, let alone something like a fox.
Nobody really knew what determined what sort of animal a shifter could turn into. There was a genetic disposition towards shifting. Children of shifters tended to be shifters, and it was rare that shifters were born to non-shifter parents. If one parent of a shifter child was a predator, that child would tend towards predation as well. But there hadn't been a lot of research into the area and many people held onto damaging stereotypes.
Anti-shifter hysteria groups especially liked to spread false assumptions. Their most popular one was that shifters could actually choose whether they had an animal side to them or not, given that the actual shifting was completely voluntary, but it wasn't true. It, unfortunately, led to many "therapies" that advocated the suppression of the animal side, which was incredibly damaging to a shifter's mental state.
She heard the wail of sirens and squeezed Seth's hand. "Sounds like the police are on their way."
"Good. The sooner this is resolved, the sooner we can get back to work."
Ana was hoping the case would be resolved soon too, if only because catching the perpetrators would decrease the risk of a new attack on Seth. She cared deeply about him. They'd known each other since childhood and were just friends. It was why Seth had hired her for the job despite the fact that she had no credentials. He'd approached her about taking the position, and when she protested she didn't have the training, he told her that she was an intelligent, courageous woman who always made sure she got her own way when it mattered. Plus she was passionate about shifter rights, and those were the qualities he needed in his staff. And so she had taken the job.