Bears of Burden Complete Series Box Set

by Candace Ayers

  “It’s my turn to be in control, Sam. You’ve been spoiling me and not asking for anything in return.” She sprayed another dot on my nipple and licked it clean with long, slow strokes. “I owe you a lot. You’ve helped me learn to trust. And, I do trust you, Sam. Completely. You helped me get over issues that I didn’t even know I had. You’ve made exploring my sexuality amazing and safe. There’s something I realized that we haven’t done, though.”

  I was having a hard time understanding what she was saying with her licking whipped cream off my abs. “What?”

  She grinned up at me as she sank to her knees in front of me. “I’ve never done this, so I’m sorry if I’m not very good.”

  With that proclamation, she sprayed a long line of cream along my dick and then took me into her mouth, cleaning me with her tongue as she went. I swore loudly and locked my hands behind my head to keep from grabbing her hair.

  I didn’t have to, though, because Presley moved her lips and tongue over me seductively, licking me like I was an ice cream cone. Then, she sucked hard as she pulled her lips off me before taking me back into her mouth even deeper than before.

  “Fuck! Presley…” My muscles strained as she tortured me with long, slow strokes and then fast and short ones. When she took just the head into her mouth and stroked the rest of my dick with her hands, I nearly lost it.

  She looked up at me, with wildly seductive eyes, and I lost control. I pulled her off me and sank to my knees in front of her. Ignoring her protests to let her finish, I flipped her around and put her on her hands and knees.

  Without thinking, I slapped her ass hard before sliding into her wet core. “Fuck, you feel so good around me, baby.”

  She moaned and arched her back. “I wanted to finish you the other way.”

  I thrust into her harder. “Later. I need to be in you right now.”

  She moaned as I slapped her ass again. “Sam, you feel so good.”

  I tangled my hand in her hair and held on while I fucked her in hard, fast strokes. I wasn’t going to last long. Her body was already tightening around me and I could feel the last bit of my control slipping.

  She pushed her body back into mine and cried out my name over and over until she shook. “Sam! I love you!”

  I froze and growled as my own orgasm was ripped out of me. I sank my teeth in her neck, tasting our mark, reveling in it as I came apart over her. “I love you, baby.”

  Another few cans of whipped cream later, and we were both exhausted. Resting together on the bathroom floor, I cupped her ass in my hands and groaned. She was perfect. Every part of her felt like heaven.

  “This is never going to get old.” She turned on her side and looked down at me. “Right?”

  I grinned at her. “Not possible. We’re going to be significantly less productive for the rest of our lives because of our need for lots of ‘together time,’ but it will never get old.”

  She traced the skin around my nipple and blushed. “I can’t wait to design the house. I know how to have electricity turned on now, you know?”

  I laughed. “You’re going to be doing a lot more than that. You’re in charge of everything. We’re going into a dry season, so I’m going to be busy with work. That means you choose what you want. I’ll just move in when you’re finished.”

  She pressed a kiss to my chest and rested her head there. “What if I want a pink kitchen?”

  I grimaced. “I’ll deal with it.”

  “And a pink bedroom?”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “And a pink bathroom. And pink walls in the living room. No TVs. And-”

  I grabbed her and dragged her on top of me. “You’re trying to make me spank you, aren’t you?”

  She grinned. “I hope so.”

  Heaven. I’d found heaven and then some.

  The End.

  MATT

  1

  Matt

  Holding my head under a faucet meant for dogs, I let the ice-cold water run over my face. I was on fire. Burning up. I had to overcome the urge to crawl into the metal basin and bathe in the cold stuff, but I couldn’t get too far away from the man in my operating room. Bear in my operating room. He hadn’t shifted back yet.

  I came up sputtering when I heard a low moan from the other room. I whipped my hair out of my face sending droplets splattering across the tile floor and rushed in to check on my patient. Sprawled out on the steel cart we used for getting larger animals in and out of the clinic, the massive creature looked up at me with large, pale green eyes. Recognition flared, followed by confusion, another long, low moan, and those beautiful eyes rolled back in its head.

  My own bear raged inside. My patient was in pain. Understandably so. He’d taken a couple of shotgun blasts to the chest. He was lucky to be alive.

  The idea that he’d almost died sent chills through me as I beat feet to retrieve more pain meds. He would be okay. I’d made sure of that. He just needed time to heal, and shifters could do that as easy as they breathed, so he’d be okay.

  I wasn’t sure if I would be, though.

  I fought trembling hands as I filled a syringe with a high dosage of pain killer and edged closer to him. My heart sped up and I focused on keeping my hands steady. My body heat increased and I blew out a shaky breath.

  “I’m going to inject you with some pain medication. You’ll be hazy, but it’ll help. Do not bite me.” My voice had lowered several octaves and sounded too close to the growl of my own bear to be considered normal.

  The grizzly looked up at me and chuffed, a sound close to a laugh. I locked eyes with him and gently rested my hand on his stomach as I inserted the needle into his side.

  “You’ll feel better soon.”

  When I moved my hand, he growled and tried to reach out to me. The movement stretched his newly stitched chest, though, making him roar in pain. I knelt beside him, without thinking, and held his head in my hands.

  I stroked his blood-matted fur. “It’s okay. The medicine will kick in soon and allow your body to do its healing. You’ll be fine in a few days.” I wanted to add that I’d be right there the entire time. That I wouldn’t leave his side. I didn’t say it aloud though.

  The medication took hold and his lids drifted closed. I found myself wishing I could retreat to the same place of heavenly tranquility. Instead, I fought for a sliver of calm. I was burning, trembling, anxious and about to jump out of my skin.

  Staring down at the large grizzly who’d been wheeled in earlier in the night, I’d come face to face with a realization that astounded me. I have a mate. I was certain I was immune, warped, that my defect precluded me from ever having what I’d watched other shifters around me enjoy. Tonight, that certainty was shattered. While the identity of the massive grizzly in his skin was unknown, one thing was certain. He was mine.

  The mate that I was certain I’d never have. As my brain was assaulted by vile, self-deprecating thoughts that were never too far from the surface, I cringed. I’d been led to believe that nature wouldn’t grant me a mate because of who I am.

  Shit. I’d accepted that. I’d come to terms with my life and fate. My acceptance was the reason I’d moved back to Burden, Texas, all those years ago. I was never going to mate, or so I thought, and random hookups didn’t do it for me. I’d resigned any part of me that had been searching and instead made the decision to come back home and live as normally as possible. That hope and longing for an intimate connection that I once felt stayed tucked away inside my closet. A couple of people in Burden knew my true nature, good friends, but they were tight lipped when it came to my business. No one else had any idea.

  I’d gotten used to playing the straight guy. The loner. I was happy with my life. Lonely, yes, but who wasn’t at least a little bit?

  My whole world had suddenly been thrown off its axis. I was not at all comfortable with this. No, this was a nightmare. This threatened the life I’d built, my reputation. It meant alienating friends and family, losing clients, hel
l, my entire career could be in jeopardy. I’d worked so hard for so long.

  I stepped away from the bear as fast as I could, to the farthest corner of the room and pressed my body against the wall. I eyed the furry beast as though he’d attacked me. Nature had derisively given me a blessing overlaying its cruel curse.

  I didn’t want it. There was a time I would have given anything, but… Things were good in Burden. My life was steady. This could trash everything.

  Exhaling a deep breath, I shook my head and tried to shrug off the strange mix of emotions that were coursing through me. Anxiety, stress, fear, but also an intrinsic, aching longing and desire. The desire couldn’t be welcomed. I hadn’t had sex with anyone but myself in years. I was terrified of seeing the bear shift into a man, because I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to fight the natural urges that would surely be present. Mates wanted each other. That’s how it worked. It would be harder to figure out what I should do if I didn’t ignore that awareness, though.

  Groaning, I went around and made sure the clinic was locked up tight before stepping into the little bathroom in the back and turning the shower on. I stripped out of the pajamas I’d been wearing before my assistant Presley had shown up at my house. She’d woken me from a sound sleep by laying on her horn with my newly discovered mate bleeding and unconscious in the back of her truck.

  Blinking, I looked around and realized I hadn’t noticed her leave. She’d saved my mate’s life. I owed her.

  I stepped into the shower while the water was still cold. I cringed as it hit my half-hard cock. Frustration bubbled up in me and I slumped against the tile wall, running my hands over my face and through my tangled hair.

  His blood ran down my arms and rinsed away down the drain. Seeing it riled my bear again. He’d come to life in a real way earlier in the night when a few of my friends had burst into the clinic. The only thought in my head had been to protect my mate. Damn, I’d been on the verge of attacking my friends for the potential threat they’d posed.

  Some asshole had shot my mate. He was in pain and fighting to recover because of them. Not knowing who it was or why they did it made it impossible for my bear to settle down. He wanted to be sure that our mate was safe. Because, while I was struggling with what to do with a mate in my life, my bear was not. He was very certain. He wanted the grizzly in the other room with a fierceness he’d never expressed before. My normally laid-back, easy going bear was trying to claw through my skin. He was letting me know in no uncertain terms that he intended to fight to keep our mate. Even if it meant a war within my own skin.

  Just one more fucking problem to add to the nightmare.

  2

  Cannon

  I’d been swimming through this cloudy haze for too long, I knew. I needed to break through to the surface. My sister would be worried about me. She’d be terrified right now, thinking her ex-husband was still stalking, still coming after her. Every time I tried to sit up and get a move on, though, my body fought me. My limbs were anchored like dead weights.

  I blinked through the small slits between my eyelids. I was in a large, shiny room. Shiny? Clear, head, clear. I was surrounded by stainless steel tables and cabinets. Large overhead lights stung my sensitive eyes as I tried to blink away the confusion. My muscles felt like they’d turned to jelly and there was a pain in my chest grew sharper every second until it took my breath away.

  Fuck. That piece of shit shot me. And then shot me again. I couldn’t remember how many times. But there was that other thing. That thing that brought relief… What was it? Oh, yes, I’d gotten the last of him. Unless someone had found the asshole, his corpse was rotting away in the forest outside of town, his flesh shredded to ribbons. Fuck him. He’d gone after my sister for the last time. He’d gotten what he deserved.

  I wanted to shift back to my skin and get out of wherever the hell I was, but I couldn’t. I was too weak. There was something else trying to break through the haze and into my consciousness. That scent. Wafting hints of a smell too good to be true, and flashes of a face I had a growing longing to see more of.

  I’d seen flashes of him as I drifted in and out of consciousness, but it was all a blur. I needed a clearer picture and I needed him closer. I tried to breathe deeper. A sharp, stabbing pain assaulted my chest, but despite the pain, I smelled the faint traces of a heavenly aroma. It reminded me of a lazy summer day. Was it natural, or some kind of expensive cologne? My bear was too exhausted to decipher the sensory stimuli around us, but that delicious scent demanded our attention.

  The man was nowhere to be seen, though. He was real, wasn’t he? No one seemed to be anywhere near. Who did a bear have to hump to get some service?

  Feeling slightly horny and too weak to help myself, I opened my muzzle as wide as I could and let out a pitiful growling yelp. It was normally beneath me to play up an injury for pity’s sake, but I had to find out about the scent.

  The man rushed in, his eyes wide in alarm. I almost felt guilty. I would have, if I hadn’t been so elated to find that he wasn’t a drug-induced hallucination.

  There it was, the incredible smell that I’d been craving washed over me and instead of a sterile room, I was stretched out on the grass beside a lake, warm summer sunshine bathing my skin as I lazily dangled my toes in the cool water.

  A rush of awareness flooded my brain and I all but kicked my bear to get him to wake the hell up. I wanted to shift back, but I needed more strength. The sexiest man I’d ever seen had just walked into the room and my damned bear was so sound asleep he was practically drooling on himself. Trapped inside of him, I was drooling too, in lust.

  Tall and wide, he carried himself more like a lethal lion than the bear I could tell he was. A mess of finger-combed brown hair begged for someone, not someone, me, to push it out of his eyes. He had stunning brown eyes framed by dark, thick lashes.

  I just stared into his dark gaze. He hadn’t shaved. A dusting of dark growth showed on his jawline and upper lip. I wondered what I looked like. How many days of growth was I sprouting? Not even the pain in my chest could distract me from his firmly muscled physique. I didn’t want to become aroused. This really wasn’t the time or the place, but try telling that to my ever-hardening cock.

  “What’s wrong? Are you okay?” He had a husky, deep voice that was like feathers brushing over my skin.

  I was in the body of a six-hundred-pound fucking bear but I was seconds away from purring like a pussycat and rubbing myself against his legs. I wanted him. I wanted him with an ache that I’d never known before. My bear wasn’t aware of it, yet, though. He was still knocked out, drooling and slobbering on himself.

  I tried to change back so I could speak. No luck, Instead, I ended up forcing words through the strong grizzly jaws that came out as chuffing sounds and finished with a growl.

  “Uh huh. Do you need more pain meds? You’re burning through them faster than I thought you would, but you’re quite a big fellow.”

  Internally, I preened. He called me big.

  He walked to the other side of the room and retrieved something before returning and staring down at me. “You’ll be better soon.”

  I shivered when he rested his hand against my fur and then felt a pinch at my side. I wanted him to keep his hand there, keep touching me. Maybe forever. Forever? The haze fell back into place almost immediately and I felt myself slipping away to join my bear in la-la land.

  It was unfortunate. I wanted to stay awake and stare at the handsome stranger for as long as I could.

  There was no telling how much time had passed. I remembered another few rounds of staring at the sexiest guy I’d ever seen, then fading once again, before the periods of lucidity began getting stronger. Finally, my bear was coming back around. When he ultimately broke through the haze, it was with a vengeance. He began clamoring around, trying to get up and get the hell outside. Until he caught that aroma. It was the titillating scent of the handsome stranger who had come to our aid. Suddenly, he became pathetical
ly embarrassing, playing up his injuries like a cub.

  By the time I was finally able to shift back, I was almost ashamed to. Between myself and my bear, we’d faked such sorry displays of weakness all to steal snippets of attention from the most attractive human being we’d ever seen. I had no idea how long I’d been there, though, and I had something important to take care of. I needed to get in touch with my sister. I now knew I wasn’t going back to her right away. My bear, now more alert, had finally clued me in. Hot mystery man was our mate.

  I was an idiot for not realizing it sooner, but with my bear down, it’d been harder. I’d finally found a mate. Not a mate, my mate. I was going to smell his deliciousness for the rest of our lives. Happily.

  Biting the bullet, I shifted back. Talking to him was worth facing a little embarrassment about how much of a baby I’d been.

  A ragged cry tore from my mouth as I tried to sit up. This time I wasn’t faking. Gasping for breath only made it worse, each time my lungs expanded, a searing pain hit that I couldn’t seem to get under control.

  My mate ran into the room, skidding to a stop when he saw me in skin. He froze as his eyes skimmed my nude body before ending back at my chest. “Stay down! You’re going to reinjure yourself and undo all the healing you’ve been undergoing.”

  I sank back onto the metal cart I’d been on for… days?

  “Fuck,” I groaned.

  He got closer to me but remained out of arm’s reach. Not that my arms could reach for anything in that condition. “Let me get you some more medicine.”

  “No. No more medicine. I need to wake up. I need to contact my sister.”

  “Later. Right now, you have to take it easy.”

  I looked up at him as he got closer and growled. “I would end up with a bossy mate.”