by Jenika Snow
He was just so dominant that it poured off him as if his body couldn’t even contain it all.
All that testosterone, all that masculinity… it was too much for me to take in.
And he’s mine.
I clenched my thighs together, a fresh wave of wetness spilling from me. My body knew it needed to prepare for a male like that. No doubt his cock was massive, so thick it would hurt when he pushed into me, even if I weren’t a virgin. And because my thoughts had gone in the gutter, I looked down at his crotch, my eyes widening as I saw the impressive bulge behind the fly of his jeans. He wasn’t even hard, yet I could tell his cock would be monstrous.
I’d never felt like this before. Maybe it was heightened because of my heat, or maybe I would have felt like this regardless, because I'd just found my mate?
Either way, it was the most sensual, erotic sensation I’d ever felt in my life, and I never wanted it to leave.
3
Kasias
I looked around the bar, not sure why the fuck I decided to come to town. I needed liquor and beer, my stash low but not low enough I had to be here. I knew the owner of Ginny’s, got a good deal on cases, which was all I got so I didn’t have to come to fucking town more than I had to. But I certainly didn’t need to come tonight. Yet I’d felt this pull, this inner voice telling me I did have to come to town.
My polar bear had started to grow restless, the antsy, impatient fucker, so here I was, having to deal with fucking people.
I curled my lip in disgust as I looked around the bar.
I inhaled and took note of the scents. Humans and shifters mingled, the scent of spilled beer, sweat, lust, and the promise of sex filling the air.
It fucking disgusted me. The sooner I got my shit, the sooner I could go back to my cabin and get away from everyone.
I wasn’t a “people person.” I preferred my solitude. I craved it. Being out here, amongst people, drained my energy and put me in a foul fucking mood. I was happy—or as happy as a fucking polar bear shifter like me could be—living off the land, hunting for my food, and selling my custom wood carvings and furniture. It allowed me to live my life in peace.
I didn’t want anyone or anything. I didn’t need anything or anyone.
A few human females danced sexually in front of me, and it was obvious they wanted my attention. They were also drunk, spilling beer everywhere, which heightened the alcohol scent in my nose.
They’d never be what I wanted or needed.
I needed to go to the bar and tell Tally, the bartender, to get my shit so I could get out of here. She was tolerable, because she didn’t say much to me, usually got me my order and didn’t try to small talk with me. Not that I would have regardless, but she knew to keep her distance. Everyone in town knew to stay the fuck away for me. They were afraid of me, and rightfully so.
Badlands Bogeyman is what parents told their children when they wanted to stay in line. I was that bogeyman and I lived up to my name. I snarled, bared my teeth, and scowled if anyone got too close.
I was about to stalk to the bar and get this over with when my muscles involuntarily tightened. I felt my brows pull low as this energy started buzzing through my veins. I inhaled again, my nostrils flaring slightly, my entire body tightening as I smelled the sweetest fucking thing I’d ever scented in my whole damn life.
I growled, the sound starting out low but growing in intensity the more that scent settled into every place in my body. I took note of the closest people who could hear me and stopped what they did, their eyes widening as they moved away.
I scanned the bar, knowing exactly what was happening to me, what I was scenting.
Mine.
That word filled my head.
My testosterone increased, exploded throughout my entire body, every very male part of me coming alive. My polar bear was a vicious bastard on the best of days without a mate. But knowing she was here, in this bar, made him a territorial motherfucker.
I growled, bared my teeth at every fucking male, letting them see how dangerous I really was. A mated male shifter was a violent creature, the strong sensation to protect and keep what was his overriding everything else.
But I was more animal than man, and therefore double dangerous.
“Mine,” I said out loud now, low and deep and filled with possessiveness and the territorial need to take, claim… mark what was mine.
My mate.
This frantic need filled me, as if I just now realized I’d lost something and needed it or I’d die. I searched the bar, starting at the right and sweeping my gaze slowly toward the center, and then to the left. I didn’t leave any table unturned. I scanned every darkened corner, looked at every face I came in contact with. Most wouldn’t hold my gaze for more than a second—those who knew me, that was.
And then my focus stopped on her, as if she were the positive end of a magnet and I was the negative.
“Mine,” I growled low again, that sound so deep, so vicious and animalistic, I knew everyone around me heard the vibrations from that lone word.
I had no control over my actions right now. I had no other need than making that female mine. I didn’t know her, had never seen her in my life. I didn’t even know I needed her until this very moment. But fuck did I need her. Like the air in my lungs, the blood singing through my veins, and the adrenaline moving through my body.
A drunken asshole got in my way, blocking her from my view. I pushed him away with a frustrated growl, and he stumbled forward, his drink spilling. He turned and faced me, and I let my eyes linger on his face, let my lip curl up and showed him my elongating canines. He was a wolverine shifter, nasty, dirty fighters for the most part, but one look at me towering over him, the scent of my testosterone surrounding me like a fucking suit of armor, the little bitch backed down right away.
My head swung back in her direction, and for a second, I was frantic as she was no longer there. I felt crazed, pissed that she wasn’t in my line of vision. My breathing increased, my chest rising and falling viciously. I started searching for her again, saw that she was close to the bar, her eyes on me, her lips parted. She gripped the bar top, and I absentmindedly saw Tally looking between us, her eyes wide. She knew. She fucking knew that female. Was. Mine.
No one better fucking stand in my way to get to her.
And that repeated in my head over and over again as I stalked toward my female.
4
Penny
Oh God. He was coming right toward me, and I didn't know what to do.
Everything in me urged to go to that male to let him pull me in close, to let him touch me, kiss me, fuck me right here in front of everyone so they knew I was his and he was mine.
This is crazy. This isn’t logical.
I felt alive for the first time in my life, like I’d been missing half of myself until this very moment and I laid eyes on him. But I was terrified of these new emotions. Not only was I experiencing mating heat for the first time, but I’d just found my mate.
I took a step back, not sure where the hell I was going or why I was retreating. He was coming toward me, stalking forward in all honesty. He was the biggest male in the room, the largest male I’d ever seen in my life. And he had his sights zeroed in right on me.
“Girl, I don’t know what you’re doing,” Tally said, hushed but frantic. “But trying to outrun Kasias when he’s gunning for you is probably a bad fucking move.”
I snapped my head in her direction, knowing I looked like a deer caught in headlights. I felt my eyes widen. “He’s my mate.”
She gave me this smile, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes, as if she knew this Kasias shifter was more male than I’d ever come up against in my life.
I looked back at him. He was closer now, but he was taking his time getting to me, or maybe everything was seemingly in slow motion. Either way, fear and nervousness, the unknown, had me moving backward until I found myself standing in the center of the darkened hallway that led to the backdoor of the bar. But I wa
s frozen in place now as I watched him—heard him growl in frustration that I was retreating.
And when he was only a few feet from me, he stopped, his nostrils flaring slightly, his eyes closing, and this rough, deep growl left him. I felt the vibrations all the way down to my pussy, which clenched. The bitch knew this man had what it needed to ease this burn in me, this lust.
He opened his eyes and took another step toward me. “Mine,” he growled out, more animal than human.
I couldn’t help but inhaled as well, my body growing soft at his scent. It was all male. It was all mine. He smelled of spice and of the wilderness, a heady scent of his polar bear ready to claim me. And when I lowered my gaze down to that bulge I spotted earlier, I felt my eyes widen as I got a good look at how aroused he was. His cock was long and thick, pressed against one side and barely restrained by the denim. God, he was… huge.
He was in front of me in just a blink of an eye, his big body stealthy like a sleek, feral wild animal.
“Mate,” he grunted, flashing his teeth, his canines elongated.
A shiver wracked my body as I stared at those twin points. I couldn’t help but imagine him at my throat, those teeth buried in my neck, his cock deep in my pussy. He’d mark me, push his scent into my bloodstream, make me take his cum. He’d fill me at both access points so that any male would forever know I was his.
His scent would be a permanent thing on my body, a visual and olfactory reminder that if any male fucked with me, they’d deal with him.
“Kasias.” I found myself saying his name, remembering what Tally called him.
He made this low, desperate sound from within his chest.
“My name sounds good coming from my mate’s lips.” He stepped closer, and I moved one back. “I want to hear you scream it out as I stretch you with my cock and fill you with my cum.”
A gasp left me at his crude, obscene words. But I wanted more. They turned me on even more.
He was so close now, my back to the cold wall, his big body towering over me. My eyes were level with his nipples, the definition of his pectoral muscles causing my mouth to water and my throat to tighten. All I smelled was him. All I felt was his body heat. He wasn’t even touching me, yet here I was aching for him in so many ways I felt crazed from it.
My pussy was soaked, a constant flow of cream leaving me. I was so ready for him, my body prepared even more now than it had been.
He lowered his head to my neck, still not touching me, but close enough I felt the current of alacrity travel through him and into me. I heard him inhale and couldn’t stop myself from closing my eyes, the sound of him doing that one act going right to my clit and causing the little bundle of nerves to swell and throb even more.
“You’re primed, my female.”
God, his voice was the deepest I’d ever heard, the most masculine voice one could ever imagine a male to have. He pulled back only enough that he could look into my eyes.
He lifted his hands and placed them on the wall beside my head, caging me in, his face eye level with mine. I hadn’t missed the size of his palms, ones as big as my face, slightly calloused… working man’s hands. The way he lowered his eyes to my mouth had me clenching my thighs together. He looked so very… hungry for me.
“And you’re in need of your male to help you with that, aren’t you?”
“Your male.”
He said that with so much arrogance, as if he knew he’d be the only one to ever make me feel good.
I still hadn’t said anything besides his name. I couldn’t speak even if my life depended on it.
“Tell me, my female, tell your mate what you need, and I’ll be happy to serve you.” He leaned in an inch closer. God, our mouths were almost touching. “It would be my fucking honor to fill you up with my seed.”
I closed my eyes and rested my head back on the wall, a soft moan slipping from me.
I heard him inhale once again, a low, needy growl leaving him. “Mmm, my mate’s a pure little virgin in her first mating heat.”
He was just so… alpha.
“Your name, my female. Tell me.” He was bossy and demanding, his words brokering no room for denial.
I wouldn’t have had the strength to deny him anything at that moment. My mind and body knew who I belonged to, who belonged to me.
This male.
“Penny,” I whispered, and his nostrils flared, his eyes darkening.
“Penny.” The way he said my name was as if he were already fucking me. “Tell me what you want and it’s yours.”
He knew what I wanted. The polar bear could smell it. And he knew he was the only one who could ease me. Denying him seemed so abhorrent to me. I didn’t know anything about this male, but when you found your fated mate, nothing else mattered. Nothing else made sense but being with them. We were born to be the other’s, like two halves finally coming together to make a whole.
I don’t know if he thought I’d have the strength to say no, but the low, dangerous sound he made told me he thought I’d try to stop this.
“We don’t know each other,” I found myself saying, but I didn’t know why. It wasn’t like it mattered.
His eyes went steely. “The only thing you need to know right now is that you’re mine.”
My heart stuttered in my chest. Maybe he saw nervousness in me. Maybe he smelled it. There was some darkness that flickered over his face momentarily before he spoke again.
“You can run,” he murmured, his lips lightly brushing against mine because he was still so close. “But I’ll chase you, sweet Penny. I’ll chase you to the ends of the fucking earth, because you’re mine.”
Yeah. I am.
5
Penny
I was fucking insane. Certifiable. That’s the only explanation on why I now found myself following a very giant male by the name of Kasias Stone to his front door.
But nothing had ever felt so… right.
There had been zero hesitation on my part when I told Tally I was leaving. The wide-eyed look she’d given me as she darted her eyes between Kasias and me were telling. She’d just nodded, mumbled she’d cover the last part of my shift, and that was that. It was like no one wanted to go against Kasias, or maybe no one wanted to go against fated mates.
And when we’d gotten outside and I was about to go to my car, a firm shake of his head and a deeply rumbled, “No, you’re with me. Always,” was all he said before taking me to his truck and depositing me in the passenger seat. Literally. He’d grabbed my waist, lifted me up, and planted my ass on the leather, his hands lingering on my body, his touch like pure liquid fire on my skin.
And the car ride to his place, which was out in the middle of the sticks, away from civilization, away from the town of Badlands Territory should have scared me. We were away from everyone and everything, completely isolated, but there was this gnawing in me, this deep-rooted need to follow him and do what he said… because going against that was like going against my very DNA.
The car ride up had been tense, but not in the uncomfortable way you’d imagine, not when it was two virtual strangers going to a house to fuck. No, it was thick because of the sexual chemistry, the tension, the need.
So here I was, a bundle of nerves, so aroused I felt how wet I was, how hard my nipples were, afraid of what tonight would be like… afraid of what would happen after the fact.
He pushed the front door open, and I realized he hadn’t even bothered locking it. But then again, judging by how people acted in the bar concerning him, I doubted anyone would dare break in to steal his shit.
He stepped aside, allowing me to enter first, and as soon as I stepped over that threshold, I inhaled. It was an instinct I couldn’t stop. His scent surrounded me, deep and dark, thick and masculine. Just like Kasias.
I was vaguely aware of the front door closing behind me, sealing me in with this very big male who looked at me like I was going to be the best meal he ever consumed.
“Look at me, mate,” he growled,
and I curled my hands into fists at my sides, closed my eyes, and just breathed. My body was alive, electricity swirling around me, through me. It was his and mine, and it was potent and drugging.
I turned then, seeing him standing by the door, his entire body taut. I saw the way his jaw clenched, a muscle ticking under a scuffed cheek as his eyes raked over my body.
“Maybe we should slow down, get to know each other first?” I might have said those words, but we both knew I didn’t want that.
He said nothing, made no move, just kept looking me up and down.
“Come here, mate.” He said that last word with authority, so much so that I found myself moving closer as if I had no control over my body. But I stopped before I reached him, just far enough away that if he reached out, he wouldn’t be able to touch me. He clearly didn’t like that, as he growled, furrowed his brow, and took a step closer to me.
“I know you’re mine, and that's all I need to know before I claim you.”
God, his words were guttural, rough, slightly distorted. I saw his inner polar bear flicker across his face, as if the beast wanted out. But it was clear Kasias himself was stronger than his animal, pushing down the bear and giving me a grimace, as if it were physically painful.
I could relate. My lynx purred and rubbed up against me from the inside out, wanting to submit to this male, wanting nothing more than to say fuck the formalities and pleasantries and just let our mate devour us.
Kasias didn’t say anything as I watched him lower his hand to palm himself through his jeans. I felt my eyes widen at that. God, he was massive, and to see him obscenely stroking himself as he stared into my eyes, it did something primal to me.
“There will be plenty of time to get to know each other,” he growled. “After I’ve taken care of my female in her mating heat.”
I knew how tonight would go. The sex would be the most incredible experience of my life, and not because it was my first time. Not because I was in my mating heat. But because I was finally with my fated mate, and nothing would ever feel as good.
