Bears of Burden Complete Series Box Set

by Candace Ayers

  His eyes burned with need and I had to fight the urge to give him what he wanted right there. I gently pushed him towards the house and bit my lip at the sight of his firm, meaty ass climbing the steps to his porch. He was beautiful.

  Unable to help myself, I pressed against his back as he tried to unlock the door. Rubbing my steel erection against his ass, we both groaned and the effort to get inside halted when he pressed back against me. I reached around him and curled my fingers around his cock, stroking him through his pants.

  Matt’s forehead knocked against the door as it dropped forward. He moaned and his hips jerked into my hand.

  I unbuttoned his pants and pushed the zipper down, hungry to feel every delicious inch of him. I reached into his pants and found his dick already escaping the top of his briefs. The hot, silky head was leaking and I used the moisture to coat him as I stroked the few inches I could reach. He was well hung, thick and long and I was desperate to taste him.

  He turned in my arms and pressed his mouth to mine, instead. His tongue, bolder then, invaded my mouth and further heightened my desire. His fingers fumbled with the button of my jeans for a moment before I felt the zipper sliding painfully across my erection. His knuckles bit into my hips as he grabbed the sides of my jeans and forced them down enough to free my throbbing dick.

  Unobstructed by boxers or briefs, he looked down at my hard cock and bit his lip. “Commando,” he observed.

  His hand wrapped around my girth and I moaned at the sensation of my mate touching my pulsing flesh.

  I gasped as he sank to his knees in front of me. Seeing the strong, proud man on his knees to pleasure me, sent a jolt of lightning through me straight to the erection that he had in his hands. I watched as moisture leaked from the tip and then, like a dream, my mate leaned forward and took me into his mouth.

  My knees nearly buckled as his tongue swirled around the head and then lapped at the sensitive underside as he enveloped more and more of me. Matt’s hands cupped my ass as he opened his mouth wider and took me down his throat. His lips closed around my shaft and then he slowly withdrew, suctioning the hell out of me as he went.

  Fuck, he was devouring me like candy. I captured his head in my hands, losing my fingers in the thick waves. “You’re unbelievably good at that.”

  His eyes burned as they held my gaze, but he didn’t stop. He slowly took me into his mouth again, his teeth lightly grazing me as he did. That time, when he pulled back, he left just the head in his mouth and locked his lips around it, sucking and twirling his tongue over me like he was trying to find out how many licks to get to the center.

  My eyes crossed from the pleasure and I grunted his name when he sucked me back in, farther than before. His hand moved between my thighs and cupped my balls before gently touching the skin behind them. Electric pleasure coursed through me and I felt a tightening in my body that had me pulling away. It was too early to come.

  Matt looked up at me with a knowing grin. He licked his lips and stood, pressing his body against mine.

  I kissed him, devouring his mouth with a passion that made my toes curl. His tongue danced with mine, stroked the roof of my mouth, and then he sucked my bottom lip into his mouth and bit down. That was it. I couldn’t hold back. Growling, I broke away to grab the neckline of his shirt and rip it down the center exposing hard pecs and washboard abs.

  With his torso bare in front of me, I pressed my mouth to his left pec and flicked my tongue over his nipple. He inhaled a sharp breath and released it in a moan. I moved to the other one and then trailed kisses back up to his shoulder tasting his salty skin while I ran my hands down his back and into his briefs.

  I grasped two handfuls of his firm ass and squeezed, pulling his body into mine. The rough denim of his jeans bit into my dick, but I could feel his hot hardness there, too. I wanted him. I needed him. “I’m going to fuck you now,” my voice was thick with desire.

  He stole another kiss and then turned to face the door again. As his hands went back to the lock, I roughly jerked his jeans and briefs down to his knees and then moved behind him, letting my dick drag over his ass cheeks.

  I caught his ear between my teeth and growled. “Your so fucking sexy I’m going come before I even get inside you.”

  Even as he wrestled with the lock, he pressed his ass back into me. His breathing was as rough as my own and when he looked at me over his shoulder, his eyes were glowing and glazed over with lust. “Please.”

  I grabbed his hip with one hand and held myself in my other hand to line our bodies up. My dick was wet from precum and his saliva, so entering him was smooth. We both moaned loudly and I felt him shiver at the feeling of that first push. Inch by inch, I slowly, but steadily, worked the rest of my length into him.

  He was tight and hot, a devastating combination. When my pelvis rested against his firm ass, it was all I could do not to come in him right then. I sank my teeth into his neck, growling through the pleasure, trying to keep myself together.

  The door finally came unlocked and we fell into his house. Mabel shot out and ran into the backyard as we stumbled into a couch. Matt bent over the back of it and cried out my name, presenting all of himself to me in a way that I would never be able to get out of my head.

  I held his hips, probably too hard, in my fists as I pulled out and then sank into him again. We both moaned in unison and then I did it again.

  I thrust in and out of him, driving us both insane with the pleasure that tingled every nerve ending. I called out his name over and over until my voice was rough with the strain of it. When I thought I couldn’t handle it anymore, Matt straightened and grabbed my ass. From the awkward angle, he managed to hold me against him as he walked us around the couch. He pushed me back on it disconnecting us, and I hurriedly pulled him down on top of me, missing the feel of his body around my dick.

  With him sitting on me, I was able to enter him even deeper as I reached around and grab his rock hard erection. I stroked him as he rode me, taking us both precariously close to the edge.

  He leaned back against my chest and turned his face close enough to kiss. I didn’t miss the opportunity to capture his mouth with mine. I stroked him harder and faster while he rode me. Our mouths clashed, but it was the hottest kiss we’d shared yet.

  Matt’s body tightened and he cried out into my mouth as the first shot of cum spurted from his cock and coated my hand. I growled and raked my teeth down his throat before sinking them back into his neck. It pushed me past the point of return. I kept pumping as more of his seed coated my hand, the carpet, and then his stomach. My hips jerked into him once more before feeling my own orgasm tighten my balls and then rip from my body in pulsing spasms. I filled him as I shook with the release.

  He collapsed back into my chest and I held him there as we both panted, trying to catch our breath. I kissed his neck where I’d bruised his skin with my teeth. Looking down at the mark, I gasped audibly as I realized I’d sunk my teeth in father than I’d meant to. I licked the torn and bleeding wound where my teeth had penetrated his flesh. I had marked him without even realizing it. I’d claimed my mate. As the reality sunk in, my dick hardened again.

  Matt glanced back at me, shocked. “Again, already?”

  My mate. He had a lot to learn about me. When the corners of his mouth turned up in a grin, my cock still in him, I realized I had a lot to learn about him as well.

  9

  Matt

  I woke up the next morning, wrapped up in my sheets, clutching a pillow to my chest. My body felt amazing, like I’d had the best sex of my life all night long.

  I stretched out and looked around for Cannon. I could sense that he was still in the house, somewhere close by. I rubbed my face against the pillow he’d slept on and inhaled his scent. My body reacted instantly to the leathery aroma, hardening and readying itself for him.

  Like magic, I could sense him, clear as day, moving around the kitchen. My shifter sense of smell and hearing were both good, but not
that good. I could tell the moment he sensed that I was awake and started towards me. It was uncanny. And not normal unless…

  I flew out of bed and rushed into the bathroom. There, staring back at me, with a fresh set of teeth marks on his shoulder, was a man who looked like he’d been thoroughly fucked and was just realizing that he’d been so high with lust that he hadn’t noticed when he’d been claimed. I growled and met Cannon in the bedroom.

  I was still naked, but he’d slipped into his jeans. They hung low on his hips and my eyes were drawn to the V of muscle on his abdomen that led down below the waistline of his pants. My bear begged me to get over my anger and touch the strip of hair leading to his navel. Fuck my bear, though.

  “You claimed me.”

  He didn’t even bother looking guilty. If anything, he looked happier. “A happy mistake.”

  “Mistake?!”

  “Not like that. I’m glad it happened. I just didn’t realize I’d done it until after we finished. I didn’t set out planning on doing it. It just… happened.”

  I tilted my head and gestured to the mark. “What the fuck am I supposed to do about this?”

  Cannon moved in closer, his eyes burning and focused on the mark. His hands rested on my sides and a low growl escaped his lips. “You’re supposed to let me sink my teeth into it over and over again for the rest of our lives. Fuck, it’s hot. I was making us breakfast, but it can wait.”

  I stepped away from his reaching hands and grabbed a pair of jogging pants from my dresser. “No, this isn’t going to work.”

  Irritation gave way to panic and events of the last twelve hours started to sink in. What had I done? “You marked me. Not only did you mark me, you left your truck parked outside all night. My neighbors probably saw it.”

  “Your neighbors probably saw a lot more than my truck last night, Matt. We practically fucked against your front door.”

  My face heated and I ran my hands through my hair. I’d royally messed up. Fear of being exposed sent me rushing out of the bedroom; I needed to be away from him. Except, I ended up in the living room, where I’d never be able to sit again without thinking of him giving me the strongest orgasm of my life.

  “Matt, what’s going on with you? You’re not seriously still trying to pretend to do this whole ‘not gay’ shit, are you?”

  I spun around and jabbed a finger in Cannon’s direction. “Yes! I am!”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned.

  “You’re kidding me, right?”

  I growled in frustration. “I’m gay. Okay, I admit it. I know it. You know it. No one else knows it, and that’s the way I want it to stay. I’ve built a reputation, a career in this town. I’m not ready to be outed. My business is mine. It’s not as though we could just go out and be normal with everyone else!”

  His head reared back like I’d slapped him. “Why the fuck not?”

  “Because we’re not normal. What we are… it’s… it’s… there’s nothing normal about it! Gay shifters aren’t normal, Cannon.”

  “You’re starting to sound a little narrow minded. Did I say a little?” He looked dejected and it didn’t help that when he reached out for me, I instinctively stepped aside. He winced. “What do you want to happen here?”

  I lowered my eyes. I wasn’t able to look him in the eyes while voicing something that may hurt him. It had to be said, though. It had to. “I don’t know. I can’t come out, though. I have a business here. I have a life here, Cannon. I can’t chance losing it all.”

  “I see. But, you can chance losing your mate?”

  The thought made my chest clench tightly, I had trouble breathing. “I…”

  Cannon laughed bitterly, “Got it.” He headed straight towards the door. With his hand on the doorknob, he paused. “I’ve got a meeting with Sam this morning about work.” He looked over his shoulder, the pained expression he wore was like a dagger to my heart. “Figure it out, Matt,” he said quietly. “This isn’t some crush that you’re afraid might not work out, and you know it. This is us, mated. Fated. I’m pretty sure a town full of shifters will understand that.”

  I shook my head. “No. They won’t.”

  He rolled his eyes. “You need to get out of Burden more often, sweetheart. Gay mates aren’t unique. It happens. We happened.”

  I watched him leave and sank onto the couch, my happiness walking out the door with him. I knew that I was making a mistake, letting him leave like that, my bear about had a shit fit, but the human side of me was adamant, if a little panicked. While my bear was raging about hurting our mate, the side of me that remembered things about growing up, the part of me that had had to learn the hard way how to play along in order to thrive, was in survival mode. It had to be this way. It had to be, for both us.

  I wasn’t denying him, or myself, because I was scared or uncertain. It was for our own good. I’d tried to come out as my true self before. I’d endured a cruel lesson and wouldn’t do it again. Yet, how could I lose the man who was destined as my soul mate? Everything in me longed for him.

  Maybe Cannon could keep things under wraps. Maybe, just maybe, we could be mates without the entire town being in our business.

  Hope bloomed like a flower in the shade. Not big and beautiful, by any means, but it tried.

  No matter what Cannon was thinking, I wanted him. I’d never been happier than I’d been the night before with him wrapped around me, with me wrapped around him. Things had never felt more settled and calm in my life. I wanted that. I wanted to be with him. I just couldn’t chance anyone else knowing.

  I’d be ruined.

  10

  Cannon

  I was a big enough man to admit that when I walked into the fire station that morning, I was in a pissy mood, still reeling from Matt’s rejection. I was feeling defensive and angry and just about every other negative ass emotion in my repertoire. Why did every interaction with my mate end with me feeling depressed and shitty.

  I wasn’t dumb enough to question fate. Matt was meant to be mine. What the fuck was his deal? I’d been running through a list of questions in my head. Had someone ridiculed him? Had someone hurt him? Had someone hurt him for being gay? Who? I’d kill them with my bare hands. Bare. Not bear. Though my bear would probably lend a paw, I’d want the pleasure of feeling their pain through my human form.

  I wasn’t in the best mind set to be starting a new job, meeting new people, and trying to make a good first impression. I was itching for a rough brawl and knew it, but could do nothing to stop it.

  So, when one of the guys on the team hinted that there was a girl he knew that had been checking me out, I reacted like an asshole. “I’m gay. Anyone got a fucking problem with it?”

  They’d all just stared at me. A couple guys had their hands out in front of them in a gesture that looked like they were trying not to startle the wild animal.

  I sighed and shook my head, feeling like a dick. “Sorry. Rough morning.”

  Bob, a nice older man, grinned. “So, men are just as tiresome as women? That’s what’s got you so riled, am I right?”

  I laughed and scrubbed my hands down my face. “You have no idea.”

  Sam tilted his head and blinked a few times. “So…relationship troubles?”

  I met his stare and felt my bear recoil from the discomfort of telling half-truths to a man who’d quickly become a friend. “Something like that.”

  He arched an eyebrow and nodded, his mind clearly working. “Well, none of us have got a fucking problem with you. As long as you put out fires instead of starting them, we’re good.”

  “We’re good, then.”

  One by one, the other men nodded and then clapped me on the back in welcome as they walked by to join Captain Jones in the meeting room. I felt another piece of me settle into Burden.

  When I walked into the meeting and sat down, the Captain asked what was new. One of the guys nodded to me. “New guy’s gay and pissed this morning.”

  Could this d
ay get any better?

  Captain Jones turned a narrow-eyed stare my way. “This pissed off feeling going to get in your way?”

  I shook my head. “No, sir.”

  “Are you single? I’ve got a nephew.”

  I laughed, tension and anger rolling off me to be replaced by something else. Camaraderie. Matt had obviously misjudged the people in his town. “Not single, sir.”

  He nodded. “Of course not. Okay, dating hour is over. Unless anyone else wants to come out of their closet or tell us about their love life? No? Great. Moving on to business, then.”

  And just like that, it was over. The guys never mentioned it again, except to invite me out at the end of the shift for drinks, with an open invitation for my boyfriend to join in.

  “I’m afraid that probably won’t be happening anytime soon. We’re in the middle of a pretty big issue.”

  Sam gave me a funny look again and nodded. “We all know how it is. He your mate?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. He is.”

  “Then, it’ll work out. It always does. You want to come out with us, anyway?”

  I’d been thinking all day about getting off work and sneaking through the back door of Matt’s house. I sighed. “You know what? That’s probably a good idea.” It was best to resist temptation, back off, and give Matt some space.

  He slung his arm over my shoulders and steered me towards the parking lot. “You can meet the guys. Believe me, we can all commiserate with having mate issues. Fate sure as hell didn’t just hand paradise over to any of us, that’s for sure.” A hint of a smile graced his lips, “It was well worth the trouble, though.”

  I groaned. I wanted to be with Matt, to talk to him, to really bond, and maybe get some helpful advice, but I wouldn’t chance accidentally outing him like that. It would be unfair. Instead of what I really wanted to say, I just pointed out my truck. “This is me. I’ll meet you there.”

  Sam stopped walking and stared at me for a few more seconds before shaking his head and grinning. “Yeah. See you there. I’ve got to run home and change and talk to my lovely mate about a little secret she may have been keeping from me.”