by A. B Lee
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“No!” Suzanna noted the sight of the cabins in the semi darkness of the night and she panicked. She wouldn’t allow herself to be the victim here. She didn’t know if this was a rape or murder or maybe both, but she swore not to go down without a damn fight.
Stuffed into the back of the pickup truck, with her hands bound and nowhere to go; he reached in for her and she kicked out as hard as she could and felt the jolt up her leg and into her hip as she made contact with his face. The beast within him roared and she threw herself into the furthest corner of the back seat away from him. She could taste the fear in the back of her throat but she paid it no mind; not until his beast burst from inside of him and she was looking at one pissed off bear.
“Shit!” She heard the deep voice echo inside the metal walls of the truck and her heart leapt into her mouth. More than one; she’d guessed as much from the amount of cabins, and yet she’d prayed that she was dealing with a lone shifter…
Marcus reacted immediately to the scene in front of him. He’d heard the woman’s scream and seen her boot Chance in the face and he knew what was going to happen before it had. Now Chance’s big old bear was ready to eat someone and she was a handy snack.
“Jackson!” Marcus raced through the field towards the action.
Chance’s bear had taken a few steps backwards and was about to ram the damn truck. The woman’s scream mixed with the sound of twisted metal as the bear hit it hard with his shoulder and Marcus allowed his bear to burst from within him. There was no other way to stop a pissed off bear than with another one.
Jackson had already shifted into his beast and was racing on fast paws to catch up with Marcus. He didn’t know what the hell was happening and why Chance’s bear was attacking his own damn truck with a female inside, and yet it was Chance so it could have been anything that had set him off. The task now was to stop him.
Suzanna felt the truck shift in place once more as the bear rammed it with all of his weight behind it. The wheels lifted from the floor and she hit her head against the window as she was flung up from her seat and against the glass. Pain shot through her shoulder as it took the brunt of the impact and she screamed out a string of unladylike curses at the bear that she hadn’t knew existed within her vocabulary before.
Confusion was rife as she focused on the bear one more time. The beast was backing up ready for another hit and she tensed her whole body with expectation of being flung around some more. Then the sound of a roar echoed through her body and filled the inside of the truck as one giant bear slammed into the attacking one and both of them rolled out of sight…
‘You’re a dead man…’ Reece’s bear took Chance down.
Claws slashed as they rolled together leaving Marcus and Jackson in no doubt that this was personal to Reece. Both bears pulled up short as the two went at it. Powerful jaws snapped and bit, and blood was free flowing as the beasts battled.
‘We just gonna let them kill each other?’ Marcus growled to his alpha.
‘Not kill.’ Jackson growled back through the clan’s mental link.
‘She’s mine…’ Reece finally gave up what it was that Jackson wanted to hear. The reason for this altercation and why there was a human female on their land. The rule was they could screw whoever they wanted but they couldn’t bring them home…
‘You weren’t bear enough to claim her.’ Chance roared back as he swiped his claws down Reece’s shoulder and opened another set of wounds into his flesh.
Both Jackson and Marcus had been stunned by Reece’s claim on the woman. At least now they knew what the hell these bears were fighting about. Jackson could understand where Reece was coming from, but what he couldn’t understand was why Chance would take the female for himself.
‘So you thought you’d steal her like a damn thief…’
‘I brought her here for you. You weren’t bear enough to do it yourself.’ Chance growled back and Jackson had his answer. Chance had been the one who had tried to stop his own mate from leaving, and that day had ended up much like this one. The man would never learn.
‘Break it up.’ Jackson roared and his bear rushed forward and rammed into Chance’s beast; bringing him down to the ground.
For one long moment he expected Chance to challenge him… The bear growled with rage, and then a moment later; he slowly pushed up to his feet and started away from the group and the fight. He was done.
Jackson turned his head and eyed the female in the truck; she looked scared to death and yet her eyes were eagerly taking it all in.
‘Reece, take care of your female.’ Jackson started a slow walk in the same direction as Chance’s bear had gone. He wanted to make sure that his second had cooled down and then he was going to kick his arse for this latest stunt.
‘I can’t…’ Reece growled out as his bear started off in the opposite direction to the others. Jackson stopped and looked back over his shoulder on a growl and a sigh.
‘Marcus…’
‘Got it. At least it ain’t a dead body I’m dealing with this time.’ The big man growled out.
Marcus pushed his bear back into its cage and shifted into his human form. The sight of a naked shifter probably wasn’t what the female wanted to see right then, but he had little choice, it wasn’t as if clothes grew on trees and his had been shredded during the change into his bear.
Suzanna’s mouth dropped open at the sight of the big, buck naked, shifter standing in front of the open doorway. Her eyes couldn’t help but take him in. Her mouth started to flap around the moment that she laid eyes on his large cock; somewhat deflated and hanging downwards, it was the biggest damned penis that she’d ever seen.
“Trust me when I say that no one is going to hurt you.” Marcus grinned the way that he did with all the ladies, but it didn’t go amiss that she wasn’t concentrating on his smile.
“Stay back!” She pushed her shoulders back against the corner of her seat and tried to make herself as small as possible. Now that she’d seen a damn shifter in the flesh, all of the flesh, she wasn’t as certain as before that she wanted to get to know one. And this one certainly wasn’t her shifter…
“Oh Marcus, for the love of God, stop flashing your cash at the woman and back the hell off.” Alex growled in her human way and Marcus frowned long and hard.
“A lot of woman would pay good money for a look at my cock…” Marcus growled at Alex as he took a long step back and twisted his head on his neck to see her stalking towards him in her no nonsense manner with her fists pumping the air to propel her on.
“Then go whore yourself out at the damn bar and stop scaring the hell out of this one.” Alex elbowed him aside, even though she didn’t need to, and he felt that jab like a damned knife in his ribs.
“Little Miss pointy elbows.” He growled out as he backed off and let Alex deal with the frightened human.
“Stop huffing like a woman.” Alex scolded him as she peered into the truck and a wide eyed mousy blonde stared back at her in disbelief. “Who is she?” She asked over her shoulder.
“Reece’s female.” Marcus tossed back over his shoulder as he stalked away from the scene of the crime. He was grateful to not have to deal with the drama of it all.
“I wanna go home.” Suzanna’s first words were both forceful and edged with fear and Alex nodded her head in sympathy.
“Yeah. I understand that emotion.” Alex placed her hands on her hips and eyed the bindings that locked Suzanna’s wrists together. “Let’s get you untied.” Alex sighed as she climbed into the truck and dropped down into the seat beside the captive blonde.
“Who the hell are you?” Suzanna hadn’t meant it to sound like it had, and yet, here was a lone female in the midst of all of the chaos and fighting and she appeared human.
“I’m Alex, and I’m the alpha’s mate…”
“You mated a shifter?” Suzanna spat out in surprise and Alex couldn’t help the large grin that came to her lips. She guessed that the woman didn�
��t know exactly who she was to Reece.
“Yeah, and trust me, once you go bear there’s no way you go back to a boring old human again.” Alex saw the spark of interest in the woman’s eyes and was grateful for it. It meant that she hadn’t dismissed Reece out of hand. That spark of interest could be worked upon; whereas flat out disgust or dislike for shifters was a harder sell, even for a mate.
“I don’t…” Suzanna shook her head as she half noted the binding at her wrists being loosened. “They’re big…I mean, real big…” Suzanna felt the hard heat of the blush that filled her cheeks.
“Damned huge and they know what to do with them. Trust me, you’ll love it…”
“Love it? No, I don’t want to…” Suzanna shook her head again, this time faster in denial. “They can’t make me…”
“Make you?” Alex gave her a look of confusion and surprise. “No one is going to make you. You’re a mate…”
“Mate!” Suzanna heard the word over and over again as if it was bouncing around inside her mind. A mate? Whose damn mate? What the hell was happening here?
Chapter four
“He didn’t tell you that part. How like a man.” Alex bit out as she rolled her eyes and sighed in disbelief.
“No.” Suzanna felt a stab of excitement at the thought of being a mate to her shifter… but then fear at the thought of being a mate to the one that had carried her off. “What the hell is going on here, Alex?” Suzanna demanded.
“Come on. I know where we can get a stiff drink, which I think you need, and some peace from all of these damn men.” Alex turned and jumped down out of the truck expecting her new friend to follow, but the woman stayed where she was.
“I’m not…” Suzanne shook her head. “This isn’t…”
“I promise you three things.” Alex offered her. “One, nobody will hurt you. Two, your mate won’t touch you unless you want him to. Three, I’ll explain everything.”
That all sounded good to Suzanna’s ears and yet just the thought of taking that first step out of the truck filled her with both excitement and foreboding. She was a mate, but whose? She had kind of half-arsed gotten what she wanted, but did she get it with her shifter or another?
There was only one way to find out and that was to take that first step.
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“Seems to me like you’re going in the wrong direction.” Marcus called after Reece as his bear skulked away. His head was hanging down between his shoulders and Marcus knew that look well enough from when Jackson was pining over his mate.
‘Get the hell out of here, Marcus. I’m in no mood…’ Reece growled back. He still wanted to rip someone’s head off and he knew that Marcus didn’t deserve to be that one.
“She’s your mate, man. You can’t hide from that reality.” Marcus heard the warning growl and knew that he’d probably do better leaving it alone and letting the man work out his own troubles, but he guessed he was just a sucker for lost causes.
‘Fuck off, Marcus. What the hell do you know about it anyway? You’re cocks in a different woman every night of the damn week.’
“Yeah. You think I wouldn’t want those women to be my mate?” He’d never said that out loud to another person before in his life. He pined for a mate of his own, even more so now that Jackson had found a mate and he saw how good it could be. He liked women, all women, and he liked screwing, but he’d love his mate.
“Can’t deal with that shit.’ Reece moved that little bit faster to end the conversation. If Marcus continued to follow him then he might just rip his damn head off for the relief of it all.
“Pussy.” Marcus called after his friend.
He wasn’t about to go walkabout naked in the damn woods. It would be just his luck to come across a damn camping trip of Nuns or something equally as mortifying. Reece would come sniffing back around. How could he not with his mate on clan land?
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“Whose mate am I?” Suzanna felt another rush of excitement mixed with trepidation flow through her as she turned down the offer of a stiff drink that she knew she probably could do with and yet she wanted to hear this with a clear mind. Instead she waited for Alex to finish making her a coffee with a really big sugar rush.
“Reece.” Alex offered back.
“Who’s Reece?” Suzanna was more than hopeful that it was the big old shifter that had been at the library for the past few weeks, but knowing her luck, probably not.
“About six foot four of pure muscle. Dark hair, soulful brown eyes…” Alex was describing her shifter and the more she talked the more the butterflies were taking flight within her. “Full lips. A slightly off skew nose… probably been stalking you somewhat…”
“He the only one who looks like that?” Suzanna held her breath until Alex nodded, and then she let it out on something of a sigh. It was her shifter.
“So who’s the other one?” Suzanna frowned.
“Chance. He’s the second in line to my mate the alpha, and Chance has a habit of taking matters into his own hands where mates are concerned.”
Alex knew that only too well. It had been Chance that had tried to stop her leaving town before she was mated to Jackson. The man had a habit of doing the wrong things for the right reasons. It didn’t excuse his behaviour but it did explain it.
“And the really big guy?” Suzanna couldn’t control the fact that she blushed so hot she was certain that she was giving off more heat than a damn radiator.
“That’s Marcus. He’s the clan’s ho.” Alex dropped the teaspoon into the sink and walked the two cups of coffee towards her guest and newest clan member.
“Figures.” Suzanna gratefully accepted the sweet and bitter offering.
“Did Chance hurt you?” Alex would kick his backside herself if he had.
“Not really. I’m sure I’ll have a couple of bruises but…” She gave a small shrug off her shoulders and blew the steam from the top of her cup. She needed the caffeine to calm her nerves and the sugar to give her that after burner of an energy rush.
“Did you reject Reece’s advances?” Alex asked eyeing her over the top of her cup.
“What? No. The man didn’t make any advances, he just kept coming in and reading…” Suzanna heard the snort of laughter from Alex and eyed her right back.
“Reece, reading. That was a red flag right there.” Alex grinned and Suzanna answered her with a smile of her own.
“I thought it a little weird. But I never thought I stood a chance with a man like him.” Suzanna admitted and Alex frowned.
“You wanna elaborate on that?”
“Look at me, Alex. I’m not exactly the kind of girl that a shifter goes for, am I?”
“Guess you were wrong.” Alex grinned again with the light of mischief in her eyes.
“Sure? Where is he then?” Suzanna pushed back into the soft cushions and was grateful when they hugged her back.
“Oh don’t you worry about that. He’ll turn back up…”
“Sure he will.” Suzanna sounded a little sorry for herself.
“He has too. You’re his mate…” The sound of the front door opening sent them both looking in Jackson’s direction. The alpha strolled in and immediately covered his length with both hands. “Shy all of a sudden, mate?” Alex teased and Jackson frowned.
“She’s Reece’s mate. I really don’t need the shit storm of him walking in here and finding me naked with her.” Jackson growled out as he headed for the bedroom and both females chuckled at the sight of his nice tight arse double timing it inside. “Behave.” He growled out before he back heeled the door closed behind him.
“So what do I do now, Alex?” Suzanna was back to frowning again.
“You’ll stay in Reece’s cabin tonight and if he still hasn’t shown by morning then I’ll drive you back home.” Alex offered and Suzanna nodded.
“He was hurt…”
“Ah, that’s just his pride. His wounds have probably already healed by now.” Alex waved a dismissive hand in the air a
nd Suzanna nodded. She’d read about the healing power of shifter blood. “He just needs to get it through his thick head that you’re interested in him…”
“Interested…?” Suzanna hadn’t really thought about it. Sure, she’d had that swept off her feet by a big, brawny shifter fantasy but this was so much more than that. She’d read about their mating, but she’d never really imagined herself being a shifter mate.
“You are interested, right?” Alex pried and saw the woman frown harder.
“I like him.” Suzanna shrugged. Then she fell silent.
“But you don’t know if you wanna mate with him?” Alex pushed again.
“It didn’t really cross my mind.” Suzanna admitted.
“Well, you’ve got time to figure it out. It’s not like he’s going to pounce on you and demand that you mate with him.” Alex saw a small light of disappointment in the woman’s eyes and she smiled to herself. Right there and then she knew that Suzanna was interested, at least in the pouncing part.
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It seemed to take Suzanna forever to fall asleep. She was tossing and turning back and forth in his bed until finally sleep won the day. The moment that he heard her soft, even breathing, Reece stopped pacing outside his cabin and went inside.
He could deal with a sleeping female, he told himself as he settled down onto the sofa and tried to get some shut eye, but it was impossible, just having her there and in his bed called to him in ways he could never have imagined. He crept into the bedroom and with his back to the far wall; he slid down until his backside was against the floor.
His perfect vision could see through the semi darkness of the room to where she lay curled in his sheets. It seemed like some kind of joke that she was finally where he wanted her the most and yet he couldn’t touch her for fear of hurting her. A human female for a mate might have been ok for someone like Jackson who had more control over his wild side but for him it was impossible.