by M. L. Briers
“For any bear getting down and dirty with his mate.” Scarlett watched those dark eyes of his again as they searched, devoured the floor looking for something that he still couldn’t seem to find…
“You want to see my back, Ash?” She knew what that meant to him – to his bear…
“No.” He took a long step back, went to turn away, but her hands were already wrenching up the wet fabric of her shirt and she yanked it over her head and tossed it down on the floor at his feet…
“Sure?” She sounded teasing, playful to his ears, and he had to wonder why she was tormenting him like that.
Did she not know what he could do to her?
Scarlett stood there in her bra, unashamed as he flicked his eyes over her body. Her tats… He had the urge to run his tongue over the swirls as they wound downwards…
The sound of the hungry growl that rumbled towards her, echoing off the walls, made her blood fire with exactly the same feelings.
Slowly, she turned in place, exposing the curve of her back, the angle of her naked shoulder to his gaze. She saw him go to take a step and his fists tightened at his sides as he fought to hold in place.
“Is this what you want, Ash?” She took a small step back towards him. “Is this what worries you?”
“Scarlett, don’t play with me like this…” Ash wanted to pull his body away. Get the hell out of that room before his bear won the day, but he just couldn’t make his feet move in either directions, towards her or away. He was stuck in quicksand and sinking fast…
Scarlett took one more step back and his beast rose within him. One heartbeat later and he was pressing her body forwards against the bathroom wall.
His fangs had elongated, and his eyes feasted on the smooth skin of her shoulder…
Mine…
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
~
“I warned you…” Ash growled long and hard.
The feel of his hot breath against her ear made a shiver run her spine. Her body was on overload at just having him that close again.
She’d teased and tantalized him until he’d come to her. He was afraid of hurting her – well, in her mind he needed to get over that.
There he was – one big badass bear shifter – his fangs were down and he didn’t make one single move to bite, to bond, to claim her.
He fisted her hair and dragged her head to one side, opening up her neck, her shoulder for what came next… She didn’t move, didn’t fight him – didn’t zap the hell out of him…
He lifted his other hand and stroked his fingertip down her neck, over the bare skin of her shoulder. His heart was racing. His blood was pumping a fever through his veins.
“Still think you’re going to hurt me?” She breathed hard against the tension in the air. She could feel how he held every muscle in his body rigid – how he was holding himself back.
“Yes…” He growled out – fighting the bear within him.
“Then do it, Ash.” Her words were the slap upside the head that he needed to clear that veil from his mind, to wake his beast up to the fact that she was theirs to protect…
His bear made a sorrowful – shameful sound deep within his soul.
“No.” Ash growled.
He pulled back just enough to spin her around in place, and there were those wide eyes of hers looking back into his. Then she smiled, a slow burn smile that lit her eyes and bewitched him to wait, to watch until it blossomed into the sunshine that he wanted to see.
“You couldn’t do it. You’re bear couldn’t do it…” Scarlett placed her palm against the hard muscles of his chest and her fingertips curled against his skin.
He felt the hard press of her fingernails as she slowly drew them downwards leaving the lines of red welts to rise on his flesh…
There was a deep rumble of a warning growl that she could feel under her fingertips and yet he didn’t flinch. Not until one hand came up fast and he snagged her wrist, pushing the back of her hand against the wall…
“Why are you goading me?” Ash didn’t understand her actions. He was trying to go slow, trying to woo her, trying his damnedest not to throw her down on the floor and take her like a wildling.
She’d baited him with her back and now she was trying a new tactic…
“I’m showing you that you couldn’t damn well hurt me if you tried.” She locked her gaze with his. “You want to bite because it’s instinct and there’s nothing wrong with instinct, Ash. I have the damn urge to ride your cock…”
Ash couldn’t hear another word like that from her lips or he might just die of need.
He took her lips and silenced her with a demanding kiss that made her want to climb back up his body, naked, and wrap herself around him again – not let him go until she was sated, until they were bonded together forever…
It was fate that had started the whole damn ball rolling, but it was her body that wanted his. Her mind that had sorted through the reasons for and against bonding with him, and it was her choice to take the step closer… to make him see what he feared the most, and deal with it, overcome it.
He wasn’t a gentle man, probably never could be. He wanted her, mind, body, and soul, and he’d fight a pride of lions to have her – to protect her – to claim her as his, and spend the rest of his life loving her – worshiping her.
She was what he never knew that he wanted. She was the rest of his life, right there in his big clumsy hands, and he’d walk through fire for her.
Less than twenty four hours ago he’d gone to bring back a mate – never knowing that his was waiting for him. Fate was tricky – fate was a real blast of damn surprises, but this surprise was a welcome change from the crap that usually screwed up his life.
Family. Cubs. Happily ever after. Could he really have those things? A screw up misfit like him.
“Tell me you’re mine, Scarlett…” He growled against her lips.
He knew that females teased. He knew that they didn’t think like males…
He hoped to the spirits that she wasn’t teasing him now.
“From the day that fate made us for each other, Ash.” Scarlett didn’t want there to be any misunderstandings, she yanked her wrist from his grasp and with both hands she reached for the waistband of his jeans.
Ash stood transfixed. He wanted to stop her – he wanted her to go for damn gold. To say that his small brain and his bigger one weren’t exactly meshing would be an understatement.
He almost groaned with relief when she yanked down the zipper and his cock wasn’t strapped against his flesh anymore, but the feel of her fingers as they wrapped around his cock and allowed him that freedom to twitch until its heart was content was almost too much to bear.
Right there and then – she was his heaven and his hell – his salvation and his damnation.
“Touch me, Ash. I’m not going to break…” Scarlett stroked down the length of him. Her fingers didn’t meet around his girth, but she was determined to get as much of him inside her fist as possible – to tempt him into action… “I’m yours.”
That did it. Her words sent him into action and he wasn’t slow about knowing exactly what he wanted.
He batted her hand away from his cock. The desire to allow her to drive him insane was just too damn strong.
He needed control now. He needed to taste her. To touch her. To know her in every sense of the word.
He scooped her soft body up against his hard one and moved fast, as fast as his legs could carry him back into the bedroom.
He wanted her. Hell, he needed her.
If she said no now then he thought he might just die. Maybe he’d just go insane…
His bear roared the moment that he took her down to the mattress beneath him. He wanted to claim her lips again – taste her sex on his tongue – thrust into her and never stop…
Too many needs – too many desires were bombarding him all at once…
First he needed to get her naked.
He hated to push back from her bu
t he needed the feel of skin on skin. The look in her eyes said hurry – he mirrored that need.
Stripping the wet clothes from her body was like opening a damn present – not that he’d had many in his lifetime, but this had to be the best one ever. His jeans joined her clothes on the floor and then… she was all his…
Ash growled like he’d never growled before at the sight of her laid out on his bed. A feast for his eyes – his hands – his tongue, and he crawled up over her body on his knuckles and knees, looking every inch the predator to her – feeling every inch the predator inside of him that he truly was.
This time – he’d caught the biggest prize of all.
“Ash…”
His heart hit his ribs. His ears lost sound with the rushing of his blood through his veins, and his mind slammed the brakes on…
CHAPTER NINETEEN
~
“No… please don’t say it…” Ash didn’t realise that he’d said the words aloud until she cocked her head to one side and grinned at him.
“I was going to say hurry the hell up and get that cock…” His lips came down on hers to silence her. His heart soared along with his blood pressure…
Still his.
She still wanted him.
He kissed her like a starving man at a banquet. His hands roamed over her body.
He liked that she was so damn soft – so damn pliable compared to him…
He broke away from her lips when her hips came up to sandwich his cock against her flesh – that was just too much temptation and he wanted to take her there and then… He wanted more. He needed… everything.
His tongue followed his hands in discovering her body. Front, back, side to side – he couldn’t get enough of exploring her…. Not until she begged for more, begged for him between her legs, and then he pulled back, settled his shoulders between her inner thighs and feasted once more.
His mate was fiery fierce. She came alive under his touch – she was demanding and he was only too damn happy to give her what she needed.
He didn’t tease – couldn’t. It wasn’t just her sanity on the line. He licked against her sex, tasted her, revelled in her body as he brought her right to the edge of reason, and then tossed her over into the abyss with him as her only tether back to reality.
Ash released her when she mewed too much. He could have spent the rest of the night right there loving her, but she got all mean talking and fiery growly when she knew what she wanted, and she wanted him.
He liked that.
He liked to be wanted.
He liked that she tried to growl at him to get her way.
He liked giving her what she wanted…
Ash reached out and turned her onto her hands and knees in front of him. He was going to try to be damned gentle with her, but he knew that his bear needed to push forward at some point, and sooner rather than later.
He fisted his cock in his hand and moved between her legs, nudging her inner thighs apart with his knees, opening her body for his. The feel of her wet heat touching just the head of his cock made him growl long and hard… He wanted to thrust, needed to be balls deep inside of her…
He felt the tightness of her channel fisting him as he pushed forward. Felt her inner muscles submitting, allowing his entry as he took her down his length, blowing out a heavy breath as he tried to keep from slamming into her…
The sweetest damn sound that he’d ever heard caught in the back of her throat as he buried his cock to the hilt, and his groan of pleasure mixed with hers in air around them.
He could scent her sex, could scent his own, and it drove him towards insanity.
His hands gripped her curvy hips. His fingers curled into the flesh and he moved, slowly at first, so damn slowly that the frustration started to bubble up inside of him…
Then faster as her body became accustomed to the length and girth of his meaty cock. Her gasps and moans were music to his ears – the slap of skin against skin was the beat.
She was just so much damn temptation to lose himself in so completely, and he was trying not to let that happen. His beast rose up inside of him at the feel of her inner walls tightening around him – making each long stroke fight harder to hit home – he grunted at the feel of her flesh sheathing his…
He really could lose his mind.
Mine…
He couldn’t hold back the beast a moment longer. His fangs elongated as he reached for body, wrapped a big, strong arm around her waist and brought her back to his chest…
His other hand fisted her hair and he tugged her head to one side, exposing her neck and shoulder for his will, and she submitted without a whimper to his need, his desire to bite.
He could feel her body closing in on another orgasm and he moved faster, took her deeper, demanded that her body come undone around his cock, the friction took a hold of her, and then she cried out as her inner muscles convulsed around him…
But she never cried out when he bite down into her skin with his fangs, buried them into her flesh, and tasted her blood on his tongue for the first time… she just mewed a little.
His beast roared as their souls met, shared, bonded. Safe in the knowledge that she was truly theirs to love and protect until the end of days.
Ash released his fangs and licked over her wound. He could feel his resolve slipping away, and the fever rising inside of him.
He needed to place his seed deep within her womb and that need clawed him up inside.
His hips moved without him telling them to. Taking her faster, loving her harder, as deep as he could get, and she was right back there with him, climbing towards her next release, making those damn noises that drove him wild – wilder, until finally he was a wildling…
His cock was building that mind blowing friction inside of her again, demanding that she come around him, and who the hell was she to deny him that. Her hand slapped down on the muscled arm that was caging her body against his, and her fingernails found purchase against his skin as her body gave itself over to him…
She heard the heady growl against her ear and it was enough to thrust her over the edge of reason and straight back into insanity, and she loved every moment of it…
Ash’s muscles burned as he took her like a Wildman. His body strained, his head stretched back on his neck as his balls begged for relief, and the moment that her inner muscles clenched and released around his cock, suckling for his seed; he couldn’t deny her.
He buried his cock deep and felt that first heady fizz inside of him. His seed exploded against her womb, and he roared like he’d never roared in his life before.
Over and over, he buried deep, clutching her to him, as they shared those moments. It felt almost unending as he pulled back, thrust to the hilt once more, and gave her everything that he had to give.
Claimed.
Bonded to him for life.
Forever.
Scarlett was his and he was hers, and no male had better try to come between them.
CHAPTER TWENTY
~
“Ash…” Ethan stopped dead in his tracks at the sound of the mating roar. His eyes snapped back towards the cabins, unseeing of anything but his own hurt.
He longed to be able to claim his mate. To take Gracie within his arms and love her as a man should love a woman. But he knew that he never could.
He was broken.
His bear was broken.
And a broken bear couldn’t be trusted around females.
He thought he might have been getting better when they started to arrive. The witches and the she-wolves inside their clan – soothing that part of him that needed to be wild. But he wasn’t fixed, could never be fixed, and could never risk his beast’s unpredictable nature around their mate.
His bear growled and clawed inside of him, wanting out, wanting their mate… Ethan turned away from his home and stalked off into the early morning light.
He wouldn’t allow his beast out now. Not yet. Not around the clan.
&nbs
p; They were happy. Mated. He wouldn’t put the stain of his death on that happiness.
He need to go.
He yearned to stay.
His bear sang a sorrowful tune within him that he despised the very sound of. If it wasn’t for the bear then he could have had it all. Had Gracie…
His bear was no friend to him. No companion. No champion, and had no damn right to mourn their loss.
~
~
~
“Anything?” Gracie shot up from the couch at the sound and sight of the front door opening.
Landon stepped inside with the kind of frown on his face that left Gracie with no doubt that they’d drawn a big old blank.
Ethan was gone.
Her mate had run away rather than claim her – what did that say about her? That he didn’t even care enough to stick around and kill her…?
She scowled back at the alpha.
“Sorry, Gracie. His tracks are all over the place out there. He’s running us in rings looking for him…” Landon hated the sight of hope dying within her eyes.
The woman was a damn godsend for someone like Ethan. He wouldn’t have to woo the female too hard to make her his.
She was as sweet as she was kind – even in the funny, bouncy sort of way that she had about her… The perfect mate for a screwed up bear shifter…
If only Ethan was around to see it.
“You’re an alpha and you can’t track him?” Gracie bit her disappointment off when she saw his eyes fire up with the challenge. “I’m sorry. I’m just worried.” She turned away, wringing her hands, before she tried to shake off the feeling of doom that gripped her and wouldn’t let go.
“I’m just here to update you. Most of the clan are still out there searching and Connor is making it his own personal mission to find the damn…” Landon bit off his words. He growled deep within his chest.
This wasn’t Ethan’s fault either. The man had been screwy since he’d met him, since he’d brought him into the clan.