“How the fuck is this your territory?”
Tristan grinned then, his canines extending in such a way that he did the pack’s name proud. Hicks recoiled in a very human, very sensible fear.
“Do these answer your question?” Tristan asked.
Hicks simply nodded silently. He turned and began to walk.
“Now,” said Tristan, turning to the others, his teeth retracting to human size, “to get the young bear tended. You'll need a doctor to look at your wounds. We'll bring you to the cabin and you can be treated there by Dr. Cooper, who’s our ally in the medical field. After that you can explain to me what you were doing attacking humans on our land.”
Corgan opened his mouth to speak and then the boy in him came to the surface as he clammed up, sensing that here was a figure of authority, not to be challenged, much as he enjoyed being a rebellious youth.
Maddox ground his jaw, wanting to explain that his brother was protecting the pack from discovery by threatening humans, but he stopped himself too; not so much out of a reverence for the alpha as a means of keeping the peace. The woman who had begun to stir up real feelings within him was a part of Tristan's pack, and for him to challenge Tristan would, by extension, mean challenging Kyla.
Corgan continued to remain stoic and silent throughout the ride, pain setting in that distracted him from any information or protestations that he would have liked to offer up.
When their car arrived at the cabin, the doctor was waiting to treat him. Corgan was brought to the kitchen, where his wounds were cleaned and the doctor removed the shard of bullet from his leg and stitched him up.
Maddox stayed by his side, knowing that he was in for some fairly intense pain. His brother took it well though, only wincing as the tweezers extracted the metal from his flesh.
“I’m proud of you, brother,” said Maddox.
“Maybe you shouldn’t be.” Tristan was standing in the doorway, his arms crossed. He was a reasonable man, and a kind one. But it was time for answers and he’d been patient long enough. These bears had caused enough problems.
“And why shouldn’t I be proud?” growled Maddox.
Kyla sensed the mounting tension in the room. It was like watching two bulls threaten one another before charging.
“Your brother has put all of us at risk with these attacks. Not only that, he’s portraying shifters in general to the world as more violent than we are. We’re meant to be protectors; at least that’s always been the mandate of the pack. We do not attack humans. Ever.”
“Maybe you should have considered all this when you decided to become television stars.” Maddox was fuming now, unwilling to allow any of the fault in this mess to lie with his brother. “It might interest you to know that Corgan was very deliberately protecting your pack, your hideaway here in the bush.”
“Is this true?” asked Tristan, looking at the younger bear shifter who was sitting calmly, grateful to be on the mend.
“Yes. There are things you don’t know. And I think it’s time you learned about them. Maybe we can help each other.”
“Let’s go into the living room then, and you can tell us. Is he all right to walk, doctor?”
Doctor Cooper nodded. “But nothing strenuous,” he said. “No attacking anyone, particularly men with guns.”
“Understood,” said Corgan, a note of reluctance in his voice.
A good percentage of the pack was at the cabin now, having made their way there when they’d received word that the bears were present. They were curious as much as anything, but their inner wolves also sensed change in the air, and difficulties ahead.
Corgan sat on one of the large armchairs designed to hold a curled up wolf, and explained.
“There is a movement that you may have heard something about. Almost like a cult. It’s not just in this country; it’s all over the world. People—men mostly—who want to eradicate shifters. I came upon them via the web. I’ve done some hacking in my life, I’ll admit, and I know how to find things that are encrypted or well hidden. One day I was fishing around, seeing how much damage you guys had done with your stupid TV show…”
Tristan emitted a low growl. Even though he bore no real responsibility for the show, as alpha it was his duty to stand up for the pack.
“Sorry,” said Corgan. “It just wasn’t my thing. I didn’t mean to offend.”
“Let’s keep the insults out of it and get to the point,” said Nikki, who was standing at her alpha’s side.
“Right. Well, the site moves around. The last I saw of it, they were calling the website ‘hunter-games.’ There was talk of a competition; whoever could bring a shifter down first was to get some sort of prestigious award.”
Corgan looked around the room, making eye contact with each shifter in it.
“Look,” he said, “We all know there are people like us all over the world. But the fact is that there is a giant target on your backs, because people now know where Wolf Rock is. I knew from reading encrypted messages that a few of the hunters, if you can call them that—they’re not all very competent—were on the lookout for this place. I saw coordinates, estimates of the location. So I came to take them down.”
“I don’t understand,” said Tristan. “Why didn’t you just contact us? Warn us? We’re good at seeking and hunting, you know.”
“It’s personal,” Corgan said, his voice suddenly sounding more animal than human. Kyla looked at him, her eyes welling with tears. She imagined the young boy whose innocence was ripped away in front of his eyes.
“It wasn’t the right way to go about it,” Maddox stepped in now. “But Corgan has regrets about that. Don’t you, brother?”
“I do. And I’m sorry to have caused problems for your reputation. I was only trying to protect and preserve our kind.”
“It’s over now, and your part is done, so there’s no point in dwelling on it,” said Tristan. He scratched his stubble-coated chin. “It’s good that you’ve told us, and I’m not deeply concerned that Peterson or this Hicks fellow are going to press charges. They’d have to admit what they were doing.”
“Well, even if they didn’t admit it, there’s tons of evidence of their attempts at murder. All of Peterson’s weapons, for one thing,” said Kyla. “They’re in a cave miles away, but well hidden.”
“Good. We should get those here and keep them concealed. Dascha, you could take some of the guys and go get them. Get Corgan to give you directions. Meanwhile we’ll need to be vigilant here. It’s possible that no one else will come, but you never know.”
“Agreed,” said Maddox.
“You need to leave, however,” Tristan said, looking at the older of the two grizzly shifters. “And so does your brother.”
Kyla gasped, her voice choking in her throat. She wanted to protest, but she knew as well as anyone that you don’t argue with the alpha on matters such as these.
Nikki looked at her sympathetically. She knew how little Kyla wished to be separated from Maddox.
“You may stay for the night. I’m sure you’re tired. But you’ve both proven yourselves reckless and I can’t have my pack worrying about what you might do next. I’m sorry, but you need to head to town or further until we’ve sorted all of this out.”
Tristan looked at Kyla, his expression a mixture of kindness and authority. She chose to be grateful that she would get to see Maddox for one night, at least.
The only alternative was to hate her alpha.
Twelve
When the pack had largely dispersed, Kyla took Maddox’s arm.
“Corgan can take one of the spare rooms,” she said, smiling at him. “And you can sleep with me tonight, since you’ll have to leave tomorrow.”
At first Maddox grinned back at her, his crooked, charming dimpled expression taking up residence on his face. Then, abruptly, he went serious.
“I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, Kyla,” he said.
She felt gutted. If she could only have one more night with this ma
n, she wouldn’t—couldn’t—spend it under the same roof but in different beds.
“Why not?” she whispered, not trusting her voice not to betray her hurt feelings.
“Because I’ll probably be leaving here for good and I think we’re getting too attached to one another.”
This meant that she wasn’t the only one who felt it; the connection between them. It was the first time Maddox had admitted any sort of feelings other than animalistic attraction. He’d come close, she thought, the previous night. But she wasn’t sure that he was really planning to admit an emotional bond.
“Do you have to? Leave, I mean?”
“I don’t know what I’d do here.”
“Me,” she thought. “You’d do me.”
“Well, if you can’t think of a reason to stay,” she said instead. “Then I suppose you shouldn’t. Meanwhile, I’m going to go to my room.”
With that, she turned away, the tears coming now, and walked up the stairs. She waited until she was in her room with the door closed to allow her hands to come up to her face and meet her sorrow.
It bothered her to feel so at the mercy of a man. Kyla had never been in love; at least she didn’t think she had. Men were to be avoided, or at least, emotional attachments and reliance on them were. And yet she felt as though life would end the moment Maddox walked out of it, and she wasn’t sure why.
“Is this love?” she asked herself. “Is it really this painful? Because if it is, I don’t think I really need it.”
She stripped naked and threw a robe on, showering before crawling into bed, hoping to be able to find her way towards sleep so that she could forget for a few hours what was happening. It was early yet, but she didn’t want to stay awake, to confront the reality that the most exciting man she’d ever met was about to leave her life.
She closed her eyes, asking her innermost self what would come next; hoping for another vision that would reassure her about life and the future. But there was only darkness, and the odd flash of Maddox’s smiling face. With it came a joy, but also a sort of aching jealousy of the woman who would end up with him one day. He wasn’t the easiest man in the world, but he was lovable to the core, with all his flaws and all his strength, and she couldn’t imagine designing a better man for her. She only wished she could say it to him.
With those thoughts in her mind, she drifted to sleep, exhausted.
That night, Tristan assigned four of the larger males the role of lookout. Their job was to stalk around the cabin, ensuring that there were no intruders about, and if they smelled humans they were immediately to come and warn the others.
The rest of the pack slept in the cabin, most of them in wolf form since it was easy to curl up on the floor of the large living room. But the night passed without incident, at least downstairs.
***
Kyla awoke around two a.m. in the midst of a wonderful dream in which her pussy was being tenderly licked, fingered and massaged by a man with extremely gifted hands and an even better tongue.
But when her eyes opened she realized that it was no dream.
Maddox’s face was between her legs and he was devouring her. It took a moment to register what was actually happening and to decide whether she was awake, but Kyla found herself looking down at him, astonishment on her own face. How had he managed to sneak in so quietly? How had he…? Why?
His eyes were closed and he was dipping his tongue inside her, letting out quiet moans as he took in her scent and her taste. The sensation was astounding as his tongue slid its way up and flicked softly at her clit, his fingers splaying her open so that he could access each nerve ending. With his lips he sucked delicately on her lips, kissing her before dipping his tongue back into her opening and exploring her channel.
“I want to ask what you’re doing,” Kyla moaned, “but I’d have to be awfully stupid not to know.”
“I’m eating…your…gorgeous…pussy,” he said between licks. “And it’s so fucking delicious.”
“Mmm, yes you are. But what, may I ask, prompted this? I thought…”
She stopped herself there, not wishing to accuse him of aloofness, and not wanting to expose her feelings.
Maddox stopped what he was doing and looked up at her.
“I woke up thinking about you. Thinking about death. Thinking about life. And suddenly I wanted nothing more than to lick you and make you come for me. So if it’s okay with you, I’m going to do that. I’m going to lick your pretty, moist, delicious lips and nibble on your perfect clit until I feel your shuddering, intense orgasm, and then if you let me, I’m going to plunge my hard, throbbing cock deep inside you and fuck you while I stare at your gorgeous face, until I explode inside you.”
“Oh my God,” she said. “I like it when you’re direct.”
“I like being direct. Sometimes,” he said before getting back to the task at hand.
Kyla parted her thighs, giving Maddox full access, as her hands slid up to her breasts. She circled her nipples with her fingertips and gently pinched them between each thumb and index finger, hardening them, thinking about the extraordinary cock that was going to enter her when she’d exploded in waves for Maddox.
The bear moved his mouth away now and looked at Kyla’s pussy, smiling, as he rubbed her with his fingers, squeezing her lips gently between them, slipping a fingertip over her wetness to tease her gently.
He watched her play with her nipples, enthralled, as he stroked the pink softness, sliding his fingers along her slick flesh, kissing her delicate lips before plunging three fingers inside her.
This made her raise her hips and moan, thrusting herself forward to pull him in deeper inside her.
“Oooh yeah,” he said as he slid his thick fingers in and out, watching her writhe under his touch. “That’s my girl. She’s so good. She loves to be fucked, my wolf girl.”
Kyla let out a gentle growl which sounded more like a purr as Maddox began to lick her again, his fingers fucking her gently and then harder, harder, plunging deep into her eager channel.
He sucked on her clit now, his tongue dancing in small circles around its circumference and finally settling in, stroking her in perfect unison with his thrusts.
“Oh God, Maddox, I’m going to…”
A series of small explosions set off inside her now, coming from her center and working their way outwards. Kyla felt her nipples grow harder, her clit grew hotter and she felt her cunt grasp Maddox’s long fingers, not wanting to release them until her hunger was sated.
“I need that cock of yours,” she said. “In my mouth or my pussy. Just give it to me now. Please.”
Maddox sat up now and eased his hands behind her back, lifting her towards him so that her thighs split open around his hips. He eased his way into her, lowering her onto his thick shaft, and she wanted to cry out in ecstasy at the tightness of his giant cock between her swollen lips.
“You like that?” he asked, staring into her light blue eyes. She felt an aggression in him as she eased up and down, his bear coming out to play, but a gentleness too, as if what he wanted most of all was to please her. “You like my big cock?”
“You know I do. I love your cock….it’s fucking heaven,” she moaned as she pushed herself upwards and came down again, feeling his entire length easing its way in, his impossibly large shaft opening her wide and creating a gush of delectable wetness.
“Tell me more,” he said. “Tell me about how it feels to have me fuck you.”
This was another first for Kyla, and she wasn’t sure what to say, but she was eager to try.
“My pussy is tight, wet and swollen around you…squeezing you…I can feel every last inch of you inside of me…stroking me from the inside…your perfect cock is so thick that you can hardly open me up enough…but you thrust it into me and spread my lips wide…my cunt…feels so good…”
“Yeah? More.”
Kyla was beginning to enjoy this.
“I can feel my lips milking you…begging your cock to
come for me….I can feel you get harder and thicker inside me…I…I want you to come. I want you to shoot your hot cream inside me, Maddox. Come for me. Come inside my pussy. Feel me squeezing you, inviting you…”
He pushed her backwards onto the bed and pounded her now, hard and fast, his thighs slapping against her round ass as he drove himself deep inside her.
“I think…I’m…going…to…” with that he closed his eyes and let out a moan worthy of a grizzly.
He tensed, his body tightening as he exploded, and Kyla felt a rush of scorching heat at her center. She was growing to love this; her fulfilment through this man’s body in every way; inside her, tending to her needs, enjoying her lust and desire for him.
Maddox gave in finally and let his body ease down onto hers. He kissed her deeply, his mouth tasting of sex, his tongue gently seeking her own.
Then the two lay in a hot embrace, holding one another until morning.
Kyla had never slept better in her life. Her dreams were of a man she loved, and of a quiet, peaceful home.
Thirteen
The night’s patrol was replaced in the daytime by four other wolves. Tristan was kind enough not to ask Kyla to join them; he knew that she would want to say good-bye to Maddox.
“Corgan, Maddox,” he said to the bears as they had breakfast together. “I have a bit of a proposition for you. It’s entirely up to you two, but I need to ask for some help.”
Given that the alpha didn’t want them on his territory, Kyla couldn’t imagine what his plan was.
“I’m hoping to get some of the laws changed around here, at least where the town of Wolf Rock is concerned. So that no one enters with weapons anymore.”
“That’ll be a tough sell,” said Maddox.
“Probably. But if you can provide evidence: the website that you found and anything else, that this group exists, and that Wolf Rock is a target, I think everyone will agree that it’s for the best, and for the safety of the townspeople as well as the shifters. Corgan, do you think you could aid us in this?”
Bearing Up In Wolf Rock (A BBW Bear Shifter Romance) (Wolf Rock Shifters) Page 10