I looked back at the twig tent he’d put together and frowned. “It doesn’t look any better than mine.”
“You’re trying to hurt my feelings, now.”
I laughed, despite trying not to. “Shut up.”
“Come on. We’re going to have a little cook out at the main fire. Tomorrow things get serious, but tonight, we’ll all eat together.”
“Things aren’t serious yet?”
He chuckled, the sound sending tingles straight to my core. “Not even a little bit.”
I frowned. “I don’t think I can do this, Wyatt. I shouldn’t have come here.”
He tossed me over his shoulder again. “You can do it. You have a partner now. You’re stuck with me for the week, sugar, whether you like it or not.”
I grumbled, but it wasn’t real. I was glad to have him close by. The woods were starting to terrify me and knowing I had someone as strong as Wyatt, someone who could turn into a fierce apex predator, gave me a little comfort.
“Oh, I sleep naked, though.”
I smacked the back of his thigh and groaned. “Take me back to my squirrel hut. You’re an animal.”
“You have no idea,” he mumbled under his breath.
I furrowed my eyebrows. Did he think I didn’t know what he was? I’d just assumed that he knew. If he wasn’t aware that I knew he was a bear shifter, then he also wasn’t aware that I knew we were mates. I’d been worried that he’d want me to commit to something sooner, rather than later. The way it stood, he thought I was still in the dark. Maybe I still had time to feel him out before I had to make any concrete decisions. I had time to search for that thing in him, that one thing that was off.
CHAPTER 11: Wyatt
I put my little mate down next to the fire, disappointed that I had to release her from my arms so soon. Not that I deserved to hold her at all. What kind of a bear would help someone else before getting around to his mate, letting her nearly freeze to death on the side of a mountain? I pulled the wool scarf from around my neck and wrapped it around hers, hoping the warmth from my skin would help increase her temperature.
“You’ll freeze, Wyatt. Take this back.”
I put it back around her neck and pulled her hair over it. “Leave it on.”
She frowned. “You’re bossy.”
I just shrugged. “Yeah. I am.”
I stoked the fire and added a few more logs, determined to warm her up. I had about a million other ideas running through my head of ways I could warm her up, but I had to take it easy.
I stood up and looked around, belatedly realizing that everyone was watching us. Almost all of them were repeat visitors and I knew they’d never seen me tend to a member of the group in quite the same way. I didn’t care, though. Obviously, Georgia was out of her league in the wilderness. Even if she hadn’t been my mate, she’d need special attention.
“Wyatt? Can you come help me? I was hoping to be a little closer to the fire, but my leg’s still hurting.” Sarah blinked up at me from across the fire.
“Bill, would you mind? It’ll be great practice for the week you finally convince that wife of yours to come up here and join us.”
Bill nodded and headed her way. Sarah made a face at me, but I was done making that mistake. I needed to be focused on my mate.
“I brought hotdogs for tonight. We’ll have a cushy dinner tonight to start off the week, but beginning tomorrow, we’re living off the land. You all know the drill.”
Georgia made an unpleasant sound and shrugged when everyone glanced her way. “I tried to go back home. Somewhere where cushy isn’t used to describe hotdogs.”
I sat on the log next to her and grabbed the pack of food. “This is going to be the best hotdog you’ve ever had.”
She glanced up at me, the firelight reflecting in her eyes, and grinned. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”
Laughter erupted from Bill, across the fire, and I had to bite back my own urge to laugh. I’d never presented anything other than a professional, serious demeanor while on the tour and I wasn’t sure how I felt about introducing a new, lighter side of myself.
“Aren’t you cold, Wyatt?”
I was going to throw Sarah off the mountain. I realized it was my own karma biting me in the ass, but I’d slept with her before I knew my mate was going to show up. Sarah was human; she didn’t know about mates. She could’ve at least had the sense to take a hint, however. Lord knows I’d given more than one.
“I’m fine. Alright, everyone take a hotdog. There’s two more packs, so don’t be shy.” I took two out and passed the rest along. “I’ve got yours, Georgia. You just try to thaw out.”
She held her hands out to the fire and sent me a grateful look. “Thank you.”
I quickly cooked the hotdogs and wrapped them in the buns I’d brought along. I handed Georgia hers and watched as she took a bite out of it. My thoughts had been focused on my guilt for letting her suffer without my help, but watching her slide food, especially phallic-shaped food, into her mouth made me forget everything else. My dick hardened painfully against my pants and I couldn’t contain a moan.
Her cheeks blushed and she narrowed her eyes at me. “Watch it, you perv.”
I was. That was the problem. I tucked into my own hotdog and grunted. This was going to be a long week. I was going to be spending all of my time with her, making sure she didn’t kill herself on this mountain. A week without touching her would be damned near impossible.
“We doing our normal group fire introduction?” Martha leaned into the fire and roasted a marshmallow she’d produced from a bag at her side.
My bear drooled for the sweetness of the marshmallow but I resisted. The things gave me gas. My bear couldn’t care less about gas. “Sure. Why don’t you start?”
“Well, most of you know already, but I’m Martha. I’ve been doing this sort of thing for almost twenty years. Hell, I bet I could just about teach Wyatt a thing or two.”
I grinned at her. She was one of my favorites. She was also someone I’d come to care about enough to introduce to Mom. Almost every time she was in town, she came over after the trip to gossip and drink wine with Mom until they both passed out. “You want to teach, I’ll be happy to sit back and enjoy the warmth of my shelter.”
She laughed. “No, thanks.”
Bill went next, followed by a new person, Allen. When it got to be Sarah’s turn, I expected bad, but what she gave was even worse.
“I just really connected with Wyatt last week after the tour and we shared something very special. I had to come back to see what it was between us. And after him helping me out so much tonight, I know it was real.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the cliff behind us. There was a slight chance I’d survive it with my shifter healing abilities, and I wasn’t sure I wanted even that slim a chance.
“Don’t even think about it. You leave me stranded on this mountain with your new girlfriend and I’ll administer CPR myself, just so I can off you again.”
I laughed, surprising everyone. I held the daggers that Georgia was staring my way and tried to suppress the shiver wanting to work its way down my back. “Don’t worry. There’s something I plan on doing before I go.”
Satisfied with the way my words left her jaw hanging, I turned my attention back to the group to find their gazes alternating between Sarah and Georgia. I had no intention of pitting them against each other. Sarah wasn’t even on my radar. I simply looked at the next person and gestured.
When it was finally Georgia’s turn, she straightened her back and sent the group a smile that sent raw lust humming through my veins. She was sexier than any woman I’d ever seen and just the curve of her mouth was enough to have me willing to crawl on my knees to her.
Damn. I was a lost man.
CHAPTER 12: Georgia
“I’m Georgia. I’ve never done anything like this ‘communing with nature’ thing before. I usually stick to the city, so this whole survival tour is an adventure for
me. Even being in Burden, is an adventure. My best friend just ran away to this place, so I felt obliged to come see what she’d gotten herself into.”
Martha grinned at me and offered me a marshmallow. “What do you normally do?”
I winced. I hated that question. No matter how I answered it, someone always looked at me funny afterwards. “I own a few businesses back home.”
They all turned their heads in my direction at once, even Wyatt. I fiddled with the ends of my hair and sighed. “My dad owned Prescott Corporation. When he died a few years ago, he left the whole thing to me, for some unknown reason.”
They continued to stare at me, so I shrugged. “I hired on people to run it, but I can’t really do anything else when they call me so often.”
Bill finally spoke up. “Jesus. I guess I sort of work for you then. I’ve been working at the Dallas branch for nearly twenty years.”
I sent him a shaky smile and nodded. “I really try to stay hands off.”
“Thank god I hadn’t spent the whole day complaining about my job, huh?” He laughed, still sounding incredulous.
My heart ached for a second. “If there is anything I can do to help at all, just let me know. While I do try to stay hands off because the business at the higher level is just bullshit, I don’t like the idea of anyone being completely unhappy if I can fix it.”
Bill stared at me for a few more seconds before slowly smiling. “You’re okay, Georgia. I can call you Georgia, right?”
I tossed a marshmallow at him. “Of course.”
“So, what do you actually do?” Sarah’s voice rang out from the other side of the fire, clear and sharp.
I felt like growling at her, bearing my teeth and extending my claws like I was one of the local shifters. “What do I actually do?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Yes. You said it yourself that you don’t run the business. So, what do you do?”
Wyatt’s big frame slid closer to me and I swear the air between us sizzled. It was distracting as hell. “We don’t normally get so personal.”
“It’s okay. If Sarah is that interested in me, I’ll answer her question.” I looked straight at her, across the fire, and arched an eyebrow. “I do things that I want to do. I take trips across the country to see my best friend. I run several charities that I’ve founded in my hometown. I take a pottery class at a local college two days a week. I do whatever I want because I can. Is that sufficient for you?”
She shrugged her shoulder. “So, you don’t work. That must be nice.”
I resisted the urge to push her into the fire. Barely. “It is nice. Thanks for agreeing.”
Bill shifted in his seat and grinned across the fire at me. “About a year ago, the company instated a no weekends policy. Was that you?”
I grinned, but it didn’t reach my eyes. I was about to spew some bullshit that made it seem like my childhood had been okay. Like Daddy Dearest had actually been around some. In reality, I could’ve counted on two hands the times I saw my dad while growing up. It didn’t stop me from wanting better for the workers at Prescott, though. So, some of it was true. “Guilty. I remember as a little girl always missing my dad on the weekends. He was never around for Saturday morning pancakes or Sunday morning church services, try as he might. I didn’t want to run a company that kept parents away from their children.”
Wyatt scooped my hand into his and for some reason I didn’t pull away. The warmth that radiated from his body comforted me more than a wool coat could have.
“You’re pretty special, Georgia.”
I laughed through an awkwardness that was wholly my own. “Thanks, Bill. So, who’s next?”
Someone beside Bill put me out of my misery by talking about themselves. Then it came to Wyatt.
His deep voice carried and his fingers flexed around mine. “Wyatt Drexel. I’ve been doing this for a while, leading the survival tours. I started after a very unsuccessful stint at a job in town. Turns out, I’m better in the wild.”
Sarah made a sound that convinced me that she wanted me to fight her. I didn’t know if it was the weird mate thing or if I was just suddenly the world’s most jealous woman, but I wanted to show her that Wyatt was mine.
I looked over at him and watched as he shoved a cookie into his mouth. I had no idea where it’d even come from, but it’d left a chocolate smear across his lower lip. Slowly, I leaned into him and dragged my finger across his lip, catching the chocolate and leaving his mouth open and his eyes glowing.
Unable to help myself, I popped my finger into my mouth and sucked off the chocolate. I moaned slightly at the taste and gave him a slow smile. Wyatt reacted in the blink of an eye. I was next to him and then I was practically in his lap. He held me in his arms and stared down at me.
“Mate.”
My heart kicked up, determined to let me know how excited it was that he was clearly accepting me as his mate. Fear wasn’t too far behind, though. There were a lot of things that I considered permanent in my life. Money, fun, my girlfriends, quality shoes from well-known designers. Men weren’t one. They never had been, anyway. From my father to the men I dated, there was nothing long-lasting about any of them. It was scary as hell and completely foreign to think of a man being in my life forever.
“Um, group, I think this is our cue to hit the hay.” Martha stood up and poured dirt over the fire to put it out and then patted me on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine out here, honey. That man is going to take good care of you.”
“We’ll see everyone back here in the morning.” Bill stood up and hefted Sarah up, as well. “Come on, hop-a-long. Let’s get you back to your camp and set up for the night.”
“But I wanted Wyatt to help me.”
“Don’t you see that Wyatt is occupied? It’s me or crawl.”
Slowly they all left, but Wyatt didn’t move. He was staring down at me with his eyes flashing from a deep brown to an almost golden glow. The intensity of his stare made my body respond in a very carnal way. His nostrils flared and he settled me fully onto his lap.
“I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything or anyone, Georgia.”
I wanted him, too. My body wanted him , anyway. Hell, my body was responding to him like a horny teenager. My mind, however, was in meltdown mode. I knew without a doubt that once something started with Wyatt, it would be damn near impossible to stop it. That thought was petrifying.
“I want…” I took a deep breath and pushed myself off his lap. “I want to go to sleep.”
He let out a frustrated growl but stood up scooping me into his arms like I hadn’t just shot him down. “You’re full of surprises, Georgia. Not all of them completely pleasant.”
I forced myself to remain silent as he carried me away. I was terrified that if I opened my mouth, I would moan. The way he was carrying me, my chest rubbed against his with every step he took. It was pure torturous pleasure and I doubted I was going to be able to maintain the strength to keep shooting down his advances.
CHAPTER 13: Wyatt
I bit back more grumblings from my unsatisfied bear as I carried my mate to my shelter. It was on the small side for a man of my stature, and there wouldn’t be a lot of elbow room, but it was secure and would do to keep the encroaching rain out. If my body heat didn’t burn the thing down first.
Holding my curvy mate in my arms, feeling her soft body pressing and rubbing against my chest was doing me in. I’d never felt more turned on. My bear was pacing, growling at me, demanding I mark her and deal with the consequences later. He wasn’t civilized. To my bear, once I marked her, she couldn’t get away from me. That was how he thought I should win her over? I knew better. Women didn’t work that way. Especially not this woman. She was refined, from the city, and probably knew how to verbally eviscerate an aggressive male in a hundred different ways.
I had to figure out a way to explain to her what I was, so we could move on to the mate conversation. I wanted her to know me, just as much as I wanted to kno
w her. This feeling of near desperation to know a woman, every part of her, was new to me, yet it felt more perfect than anything I’d ever experienced.
I hiked up the mountain a bit higher, eager to reach my shelter so I could crawl inside with her. I hoped the urge to mark her would settle down some once we were alone and there were no other males around to set my bear off.
“So, Sarah seems really into you.”
I slapped Georgia’s ass hard, without even thinking about it. “You’re toying with me, now.”
She stiffened against me, completely at odds with the overwhelming and intoxicating scent of her arousal. “Caveman. Don’t do that again.”
My dick ached painfully at the hoarseness in her voice. I wanted to hear that voice begging me to slide into her hot little body. I stroked my hand over her ass and left it there. She was mine.
She wiggled against me, her eyes narrowing while her teeth worked her lip between them. “You’re pretty comfortable touching me for a stranger.”
I reached my shelter and bent over to ease her into it. “You and I both know we were never strangers to each other.”
She crawled to the back of the little shelter and tucked her feet under her. “Are you going to take me back down the mountain tomorrow?”
Take her home? No fucking way. I was going to spend this week convincing her that we belonged together. Although, right now, I was having a little trouble containing my bear. Being alone with our mate wasn’t helping any. He needed to run, and I needed to get out of the shelter and go farther up the mountain, away from everyone, to do that.
“I’ll keep you safe this week, Georgia. You’ll have fun.”
She looked like she wanted to argue, but instead she just crossed her arms under her chest and sighed. “You’re a Neanderthal.”
I nodded. “Seems that way.”
CHAPTER 14: Georgia
Bears of Burden: WYATT Page 5