by M. L. Briers
It was just supposed to be a small wedding party, and the clan was hosting the occasion as a favour to the groom. It was before her time with the clan, but it was said that the man had come to the mountains on a weekend skiing getaway and had helped to save the life of one of the cubs when he’d got lost in a snowstorm.
The alpha, Nick, considered that act a debt that could never be repaid. The wedding was just a token of his appreciation. It was the clan way, honour, and one of the reasons that Lola had joined them when she’d left her own clan.
“Not right this minute, no.” Kristy shook her head and knocked back the rest of the liquid in her glass, instantly regretting it as it took her breath away…
“Whoa, easy there. That Scotch is definitely made to be sipped and treated with respect.” Nick’s deep voice boomed out in the almost empty bar. Aside from the three of them there was only one other, an old man sitting by the roaring fire reading a book, oblivious to what was going on around him or so it would seem.
“Noticed.” Kristy breathed out, her words getting lost in the fire that still burned all the way down. “More.” She held out the glass towards Lola and the young she-bear took it with a chuckle and a smile of approval that was mirrored in her eyes.
Kristy wished that she could smile like that, and she’d tried too, practicing in the mirror that very morning… It just didn’t seem to be inside of her at that moment in time.
“You here for the wedding?” Nick asked and she nodded.
“She doesn’t think much of the bride.” Lola informed him and he frowned, an honest to goodness frown that made his chocolate eyes darker.
“What’s wrong with her?” Nick didn’t like the sound of that.
He considered Jackson a friend to the clan. The man had saved a cub’s life, finding him out in the snow and carrying him back towards home – until Nick had met them and taken the boy from his arms. He owed Jackson a lot, and if he had made a bad choice in mates…
“She’s…” Kristy’s eyes narrowed and Nick watched her life a hawk. He went to take a step into the room, when her eyes flicked up to his and held him in place like she’d nailed his boots to the floorboards… There was something about those crystal blue eyes that stirred his bear and his cock and held him spellbound. “Flighty.”
It was the best that she could come up with.
“What does that mean?” Nick growled a little deeper.
His bear edged forwards a little. He wasn’t sure if it was the sound of bad news for his friend about his intended wife, or that, like him, the bear wouldn’t mind spending some time locked inside one of the cabins with the curvy bearer or bad news.
“She’s got a case of cold feet.” Kristy looked a little mournful.
“Well, she’d better warm them right up again or the alpha will…” Lola bit off her words when Nick growled a warning at her.
Kristy’s eyes snapped towards him, and now she took him in – like, really took him in. The man was six foot odd tall and built like a log cabin.
His large shoulders dominated his frame, and that frame was packed with muscles that strained the fabric of his faded jeans and the black long sleeved shirt that clung to him. He’d pushed the sleeves up his forearms and she could see the muscles there, the sinew that attracted a response from deep inside of her womb…
The body was built for sin, but in truth, it was his eyes – chocolate brown and set in a tanned face with black stubble wrapped around his chin and reaching for his hair line by his ears… and that mop of tousled hair that looked like he’d just stepped out of bed that thrilled her…
She knew who he was. Jackson had told her, and she’d been curious enough to look him up on the internet. In the flesh he was even more devastatingly handsome and as sexy as hell.
The thought that he’d just stepped out of bed thrilled her, and she stomped down on it. It was wrong, worse than wrong. She was getting married in two damn days!
Shifter sex God or not – two days – a ring.
Now wasn’t the time to find another man so attractive that you could feel your damn panties trying to drop.
CHAPTER THREE
~
“Lola, go to the kitchen and make sure that things are getting ready for tonight’s dinner.” Nick’s eyes didn’t wander from Kristy. They were locked an loaded like a predator that had its prey in sight.
“Now?” When things are just getting good? She almost added, but then his eyes briefly snapped towards her and the dark glare that he offered her made her rush to place the refilled glass down in front of Kristy and sent her on her way on fast feet.
“So, his future bride has cold feet.” Nick’s gravelly voice warmed her almost as much as the Scotch, and she turned a frown upon him, watched as he folded those big muscled arms across that meaty chest, and propped up the wall with his shoulder… “How bad is it?”
Yep, sexier than hell.
“I have no idea.” Kristy bit out on a definite shake of her head as she reached for that cut crystal glass with the fiery good stuff inside and scowled at it as if the drink itself was pure evil.
“Are you planning to break my friend’s heart?” He asked that question so simply that she only managed to get the glass halfway to her lips before he’d fazed her.
She snuck a look at him out of the corner of her eye.
“No.” She bit down on the rush of adrenaline that dumped into her system.
They were friends, of course they were. She knew that – she’d heard the story a million times because Jackson was so proud that he’d saved the boy…
So why the hell had she told the alpha anything at all? She had to know that he’d figure out who she was eventually – even if it was when she was standing at the alter or running as fast as her legs could carry her down the side of the mountain and not stopping for anything until she got home…
I need to leave…
God, did I really just think that?
Run away?
Leave?
How the hell can I just leave Jackson like that?
No – I’m marrying Jackson – end of story…
“Good.” Nick’s voice was super gravelly and it made her jump to attention a little inside. It came at a time when he could have been reading her mind.
That deep sound enthralled her. Sparked something to life within her and she tried to push it away.
He was a bear – she knew that – strange, but still, they existed, much like witches, and humans had to get used to it. Some had, some hadn’t, and some would never accept them no matter what.
She wasn’t too keen on the idea herself. It was a strange concept to try to get your head around, but live and let live. She just hoped the shifters felt the same way about humans.
“What would you have said if I’d said yes?” Kristy shot another look at him.
He hadn’t moved. He still filled the doorway. He still looked good enough to eat.
“Truthfully, I don’t have a clue. I’m not the talkative type.” Nick admitted. The truth was he was fine when it came to his own people, but humans? He’d been cautious around them his whole life – he didn’t see why he needed to be any different now just because shifters were now in the public domain.
In fact – he wasn’t even sure why he’d started up a conversation with her when he’d seen her sitting there alone at the bar. There was just something about her…
Jackson’s woman was beautiful, and curvy in all of the right places. Just his type too, except, she was human, and he’d had his fill of the human females that came to the mountain retreat just to bag a shifter in bed…
He’d had his share of those woman at first, but now he was ready for a mate, and he kind of envied Jackson finding his… If she really was the right woman for him.
Now that he thought about it a little more, saw her in person, she didn’t fit well with Jackson. The man was a little weedy, a little needy, and a lot geeky, or was it nerdy? He could never keep up with the outside world – things
changed too fast out there for his liking.
“You seem to be doing ok.” She turned her head and shot him a quick smile…
That damn smile knocked him for six. It was like the sun that came out on the first real day of spring on the mountain and the land came alive… only it wasn’t the land, it was him. He felt very alive just looking at her.
She turned her head back towards her glass and took that sunshine away. He growled a little, cut it off before he remembered that he didn’t have to hide who he was anymore from the world, but that didn’t stop his bear from growly deep within him.
The damn bear was probably in need of the tension breaker that a good few hours of sex with a female of any species could bring him. He’d been denying himself the pleasure for a while now – no more damn bear groupies on the end of his cock – he wanted his mate, but he very much doubted that the woman was just going to stroll in the door one day…
“I guess you bring out the worst in me.” He noted the growl in his voice and tried to silence it – she looked a little restless, a little fidgety, and scaring the hell out her wasn’t on his to-do list for the day. Being able to growl didn’t mean it was always the right thing to do.
“The worst?” She turned her eyes on him again. The smile might not have been on her lips, but it still resided within her eyes a little – he’d take what he could get.
“Making me Mr Chatty.” He offered back and she smiled again, a little chuckle in her tone.
“And that’s bad?”
“Very.” He liked looking at her.
He liked talking to her.
She was easy on the eye and brain… but devastating to his little brain as his cock got more solid with every second that ticked on by.
If she hadn’t of been Jackson’s woman then he might just have broken his own double rule. No screwing the customers, and no screwing humans. Even the ones that attracted him the way that she did.
“Well, I apologise. I didn’t mean to make you more human.”
Nick’s brain snapped into gear and his bear gave a sorrowful whine inside of him…
Kristy realised what she’d said the moment that she looked at him – wondering why he hadn’t replied – and she saw the look on his face. She didn’t think he could look any worse if she’d kicked him right in the balls…
Her hand flew to cover her mouth as she gasped in a breath and her eyes widened in horror.
“Oh my God!” Kristy breathed out. “I didn’t mean… I didn’t even think about you being a… I’m sooo sorry that came out all wrong.”
“That’s…” He shook his head, but she could see by the way that he was eyeing her that he didn’t believe her. Every muscle in his body had tensed up and he’d snapped upright, dropped those big arms to his sides, and his hands had fisted at his thighs…
CHAPTER FOUR
~
“I swear. I was referring to the fact that men just grunt replies…” Kristy rushed out.
“I should go and…” He tossed up a hand but couldn’t for the life of him think of a damn thing to say.
She’d sucker punched him.
Blindsided the man and bear in one go.
He knew that not all people accepted shifters – he just didn’t think she’d be one of them.
“No…!” She dropped down from the stool and tittered on her legs, swayed a little, and he was at her side in a heartbeat, steadying her with his hands against her hips.
His touch burned like fire through the fabric of her clothes and that heat travelled over her body and deep inside of her. She caught her breath as she stared up at him – those chocolate eyes of his had turned dark – really dark, as he gazed down at her and narrowed them slightly.
“Please… I swear. I didn’t mean it the way that it sounded.” She placed the palms of her hands against the bare skin of his forearms and felt even more heat. There was a strange sensation like a tingle that ran over her hands and up her arms…
“It’s fine.” Nick assured her. He felt a little off, a little strange.
Her unsteadiness he could put down to too much booze – he hadn’t even hit the bottle yet – he’d been working all day – but maybe after this encounter he just might take a bottle or two back to his cabin with him…
Nick went to drop his arms – it was as if he needed to fight his muscles to even contemplate doing it, but before he could, her fingers tightened against his muscles and his eyes snapped back to hers… Ice blue like the clearest waters from the mountain that gathered in pools in the springtime.
“You don’t believe me.” Kristy’s voice was quiet – too quite – his ears pricked up to catch every word.
“I didn’t say…” Nick started on a small shake of his head. He wanted to end this torment, and it was close to becoming that now…
“You have a thing that you can do where you sniff out deceit, or so I’m told, maybe it’s just bull…” She gave a small shrug off her shoulders. She didn’t think it was, she was almost certain that she’d read it somewhere.
“It’s not.” Nick assured her, but he wasn’t sure that he liked that idea… he wasn’t sure that he didn’t like it either.
There were normally too many humans coming and going around the resort to go around scenting the air on an average day, and he’d trained himself to breath only through his mouth. It had become natural to him now, and that was the way that he liked it – it stopped his bear getting distracted – stopped him getting distracted.
His bear had wanted to sniff. The damn animal couldn’t understand why they didn’t go around sniffing everybody that they came across, but he certainly had reservations about this one…
His friend’s mate…
“Sniff me.” She wrenched her hands away from his arms, and he missed that touch already, and she tossed them up in the air and dropped them back down against his skin. “Oh, that doesn’t strange.” She muttered.
She saw his eyes narrow on hers, saw the way that he titled his head slightly to one side as he stared at her in disbelief…
“What?” She demanded. “Go ahead, take a big old whiff and see for yourself if I’m lying or not.”
She practically challenged him with her words – with the look of fire in those ice blue eyes – and then she did the damnedest, most stupid thing a human could do… She tilted her head to one side and opened her neck and shoulder to his will…
Nick’s beast rose up within him… He pushed back, and he couldn’t believe just how hard he had to wrestle the bear to keep him at bay…
His eyes fixed on her ivory skin. He counted the beats of her heart in the pulse that throbbed just under the skin without even meaning to or knowing that he was doing it…
He rumbled a low, deep growl, and saw her eyes narrow just a little before they flared, saw her breath being heaved in and her breasts rising and falling as she took in more air… he felt the way that a shiver ran through her, goosebumps breaking out on her skin…
All that and more intrigued him – enticed him – made his beast growl, and made his cock harder than damn steel.
She had challenged him.
Nick leaned in, dipped his head, and took his first real breath in through his nose since he’d walked into the room and found her sitting on the stool looking lost…
She scented of vanilla and wildflowers in spring…
She scented divine…
His cock twitched, trying to break out of the restraints of his jeans. His muscles tensed. His stomach took an unseen blow, and his mind spun with a million and one different images of the two of them naked together…
Mine…
CHAPTER FIVE
~
Nick threw himself back away from her. It was the hardest thing that he’d ever had to do in his life, and yet… she wasn’t his.
She couldn’t be…
She was marrying his friend…
She was Jackson’s woman…
What the hell had he done?
Who the hell did
that?
Scenting another man’s mate…
And yet she wasn’t Jackson’s mate, she was his.
His mate to love and protect.
His mate to honour and cherish until the end of days.
His mate to have a family with…
His mate to grow old with…
His… not Jackson’s woman. His.
It was so damn wrong and yet there was nothing in his life that had ever felt more right.
His mate.
His soulmate.
His woman to woo.
His beast roared with the claim. It would have pushed forward and taken her right there and then if it could have, but Nick’s grip on the bear was iron clad, and he needed to retreat, regroup, think about the ramifications of what this meant, and what the hell he was supposed to do about it.
“Did I lie?” Kristy’s blue eyes were shining up at him like the sun again, and his stomach rolled and pitched inside of him…
“No.” He growled out, taking a long step back away from her, a scowl bringing his eyebrows down over his eyes. “I need to get back to work.” He growled out.
“Okies.” She chuckled a little as the Scotch took more of a hold on her.
“I’ll see you around.” Nick bit out and took off for the nearest exit that would get him out of those four walls, away from her scent, and into the wide open freedom of the mountain.
He needed that now. That openness. That space.
He needed to shift into his bear and run free, and yet, he knew that if he allowed the shift then his beast wouldn’t leave her damn side.
He was caught between heaven and hell and there didn’t seem to be a way out without someone getting hurt. Maybe badly. Maybe dead.
Damn, the thought of Jackson’s hands on her body sent his blood pumping hard through his veins.
The thought of them laying together, touching, kissing, screwing… and that was all there could ever be between them, because Jackson wasn’t her true mate, and nobody would or could ever love a woman the way that your one true mate could, in bed or out of it…