by J. L. Madore
BEAR’S STRENGTH
Guardians of the Phoenix: Book 3
JL Madore
Copyright © 2020
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JL Madore
Cover Design: Gombar Cover Designs
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Bear’s Strength: Guardians of the Phoenix
JL Madore -- 1st ed.
ISBN: 978-1-989187-39-5
CHAPTER ONE
Brant
It’s four o’clock in the afternoon when we step off Hawk’s sleek Gulfstream G650ER jet, at a private airport outside of Portland. Hawk’s pilot taxied us right inside the hangar, so despite it pissing down rain, we’re free to stretch our legs while the airport Welcome Wagon does their thing.
Hawk takes Kotah, his younger sister, Keyla, and Doc over to meet a few of his hand-picked security staff waiting by the office door, and Calli, Jaxx, and I wander.
“Hey, Lukas,” I say, nodding to the military-fit, right-hand mage of our avian mate. The guy has proven solid from the get-go and after he saved our asses with his magic dome of impenetrability during the missile attempt on our lives, I’ve learned to respect him as part of the team. “Hawk said the warehouse in Eugene was a bust. Did you find anything we can use? Anything that leads us to where those teens are being hidden away?”
Lukas meets my knuckles for a bump and tilts his head from side to side. “Nothing inside, but a local investigations officer skimmed the garbage bags from the closest dumpster and found a couple of shipping orders made out to the FCO. She’s tracking the manifest info and accounts now. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll lead us to something we can use.”
“Cool. Where can I find her?”
Lukas points to the second of three, black SUV trucks parked outside the open doors of the hangar. “She’s working off her laptop and phone.”
I take that as my cue and head out.
Damn. It’s really coming down. I duck my head, scoot into the deluge, and dive into the back seat as quickly as I can manage. The door slams behind me and I’m still brushing my hands down the slick layer of water on my arms when her scent hits.
Shit on a stick. “Hey, Hannah,” I say, offering her what I hope is an easy, charming smile. “So, you’re the local IO Lukas mentioned, huh? When did you switch to investigations?”
Hannah Gantley, a redhead witch with fairy blood from the Seattle office, twists around in the shotgun seat and smiles. “If you’d called like you said you would, you’d know the answer to that, B.”
Okaaaay. So, I may have found too much enjoyment in Hawk’s two past-lover fiascos with Calli. It seems the universe has a sense of humor and is goosing me in the ass.
“A lot has happened in my life too, beautiful. Did you hear about the rise of the phoenix? I’m one of her guardian mates. I’m the chosen ursine.”
Hannah draws a deep breath and shakes her head. “You don’t carry the scent of a mated male. You sure you want to stick with that story?”
My bear growls loud and long. No. My scent isn’t merged as a claimed mate. Jaxx, Kotah, and even fucking Hawk have mated Calli over the past week and a half, but here I am, the charmer, stalled in my tracks and on the outside looking in. “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to take things slow.”
Hannah snorts. “You taking it slow? You do remember our first sextacular meeting, right?”
“Of course, I do.” I had her long legs wrapped around my hips twenty-five minutes after we locked eyes across the dancefloor. “That was different. That was a bar crawl hookup. No strings. No complications.”
She tilts her head toward the hangar. “So, your mate-in-waiting is strings and complications?”
“No!”
“That’s what you said.”
“That is not at all what I said,” I say, my bear growling at the offense of even implying I would say such a thing. “Shit, forget it. I came to find out about the leads from the warehouse but it was obviously a mistake.”
I reach for the door handle and Hannah reaches back and grabs my shirt. “Relax, Bear. I’m fucking with you. Tall, dark, and military over there told us almost nothing about why we’re here but your place as one of the chosen guardians is hardly a secret. Call me childish but twisting the screws to you took the edge off you dumping me.”
I shake my head. “Hannah… I never dumped you. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you thought we were anything more than a good time when I was in town.”
She stares at me for a moment longer and bursts out laughing. “Okay, still fucking with you.”
I flop back against the leather seats and curse. “Can we please fast-forward past the fucking with me part and focus on what you found at the warehouse? My bear’s not in full control right now and you’re testing my focus.”
Hannah sobers and shrugs. “Sure. Right after you tell me what’s really going on with the warehouse and why it’s so hush-hush.”
“If it ends the torment, done deal. Last fall, I took down three different kids with off-the-charts, unique fae affinities. When I followed up on them a month or so ago, I found that they’d been erased off the face of the earth. It’s a thorough wipe. Their parents know nothing about any of them, my files were altered to omit mention of them, and according to the records in the Fae Palace, they never existed.”
“Their existence is completely erased?”
“Yeah. It was made to look like Hawk Barron is behind it, but that’s not the case.”
“How can you be sure—”
“Because he’s another of our mates.” I wave off her skepticism, surprised how sure I am now of his innocence. “Trust me, I explored that avenue and it’s a dead end. As our bonds grow, so too does our sense of each other. Hawk’s a hard-ass but he’s also a patriot to all things fae.”
“So, three kids are missing, and you thought they might be in that warehouse?”
“No. Fourteen kids are missing, and we don’t know where the hell they are. Every time we dig deeper, we find that it’s worse than initially suspected. That’s why we have to move on this… and why we have to keep it quiet. Fourteen kids are depending on us and the enemy is our own people.”
Hannah purses her lips and frowns. “Okay, so here’s what I’ve found.”
Calli
My phone vibrates in my pocket and I check the text from Brant. Text? Where’d he go? I look around the shiny white hangar and don’t see him. Alright, so I open the text.
Full-disclosure moment, beautiful. You asked for a heads-up if you meet a female from past indiscretions. I can’t remember what we agreed on. Hannah. FCO co-worker. Nothing important. Don’t fireball me.
I show Jaxx the screen o
f my phone.
My jaguar arches a golden brow. “Yeah, I’m not sure where we landed on that minefield either. I say good on him for being pro-active and to err on the side of not getting his balls sautéed.”
I chuckle. “You make me sound like a jealous maniac.”
“Says the female who threw fireballs at Hawk’s head and almost burned down the Fae Palace.”
“Hey, both the Council Minister and that ebony-haired bitch taunted me. I understand as well as the next girl that you four are gorgeous and virile and that three of you have past relationships. I simply don’t take being ambushed well.”
Jaxx still doesn’t look happy about my request for full disclosure. I originally thought his discomfort stemmed from him wanting to save his own ass, but then I clue in. Jaxx isn’t like that. My Texas cowboy is a southern boy, born and raised. “It offends your moral code of discretion to tell me, doesn’t it?”
He shrugs. “Yeah, more than a little.”
After Hawk exposed my damaged past to them, it was Jaxx who offered a clean slate option. A roadside rebirth. We agreed to start over from the moment I resurrected from human roadkill to a wildling phoenix destined to unite two realms. If I ever learn how to transform into my phoenix form.
Big if on that one.
“Hey, kitten,” Jaxx says, pulling me against his chest. He chucks my chin and I gaze up into his stunning turquoise eyes. “Don’t be sad. No one in my past can touch what you mean to me. If you need every detail to feel secure in us, I’ll tell you. I just won’t like it.”
Huh? “Oh, no. My mind wandered. I was thinking about not being able to shift and letting down both worlds.”
The tension in his body eases and he envelops me in his hold. “It’s been less than a month. The rest of us took a decade or more before we could call our animals with any accuracy. Stop being so hard on yourself.”
He presses a chaste kiss on my lips and the growing tension inside me eases off… a little.
Jaxx’s skin glows with a beautiful golden tan, and he smells like fresh air and spruce trees. When he’s this close, it doesn’t matter that we played in the shower this morning after a wild and wonderful twofer in our bed.
He’s mine and I hunger for him—insatiably.
His eyes grow hooded as he breathes deep, and a sexy purr rumbles up his chest. The deep-throated timbre vibrates within my cells and a glorious pang of desire hits. My nipples peak as a rush of wet heat dampens my panties.
“You know better than to purr for me in public, puss.”
Jaxx bites his lip and his gaze searches the space. “You speak as if it’s voluntary. When my mate is HAF, I have no control.”
“HAF?”
“Horny as fuck. And the scent of it makes me crazy.”
Horny as fuck? And here I thought I was playing it cool.
I giggle as he grabs me by the wrist and pulls me down a side hallway and into a small lounge. It’s got a love seat, a glass side table with a stack of magazines, and most importantly a lock on the door. He leaves the overhead fluorescents off, locks the door, and seizes me into his arms.
With Jaxx, everything happens in a blur of sexy. Cool air hits my thighs as my pants are shucked down my legs. I manage to get my shoe off and one foot pulled from my pant leg while he undoes his jeans.
That’s all the time I get.
He grips the fleshy rounds of my ass, and then I’m off the floor and my shoulders bump the back of the door. I’m pinned against his hips, my core open, and my ankles wrapped around his thighs.
“Yesss,” he growls as his erection slides deep. “Damn, I love that you’re always wet and ready for me to glide home.”
To accentuate his point, he pulls out to his swollen tip and then slides home once, twice, and by the third time, I bite my lip to keep from gasping. This isn’t our bedroom, or somewhere we can settle in. As soon as Hawk finishes with airport security and getting Keyla sorted, we’ll be on the move.
“Be quick,” I gasp, gripping his broad shoulders as I bump and bounce behind the weight of his thrusts.
“You first,” he growls, pulling me off the door to walk us over to the courtesy loveseat. He sets me on my feet, pulls out, spins me to face the wall, and gives me a shove to bend me over the arm of the sofa.
“Bossy, boy.” I laugh. He spreads my stance with a toe on the inside of my ankles and impales me in a solid thrust from behind. I collapse forward and gasp into the cushion.
“You don’t seem to mind my alpha comin’ out.” Jaxx laughs and builds his penetrations to a pounding rhythm. Bent with my bare ass in the air for a quicky in an airport lounge would’ve been uncomfortably risqué before my transition.
Now, the animal inside me craves these wild moments.
“Best view evah,” he says, his voice as deep as his cock inside me. I hear the wet pop of his thumb being pulled from his mouth and my core weeps. “You said to be quick, right?”
The pressure of his thumb playing at the rim of my ass sends off an electrical pulse in my cells. He’s playing but my orgasm builds wildly in anticipation. From behind, I feel every inch of him inside me so much more keenly.
The head of his cock hits something delicious deep in me and, with the added succulence of his thumb pressing against the tightly closed flesh of my bottom, I shudder. “Gawd, yes.”
More of the rough fucking. My body rocks with every slam of his hips. I press my hands into the plush fabric of the sofa, being careful not to let my fire escape and burn the couch. That would be awkward.
My release builds hard and fast. My intimate folds stretched wide. My inner muscles grip and grab at the ridges of his slick cock. A sharp keening heats my core and I fan the flame, coaxing it to grow, to take me, to ignite like wildfire.
His breath is catching behind me and I love that he’s exerting himself. If I can be a workout for these guys, strip me down and sign me up. I push back against the force of his thrusts, my palms spreading on the seat, my resistance making his hips slam harder. Deeper.
His thumb circles. He’s done playing now. He forces his digit past my resistance, and I buckle onto my elbows.
The nerve endings he strokes send a shot of fiery pleasure straight to fuel the wildfire. “Oh, gawd, Jaxx… so good.”
I’m lost. I press my face forward and cry out, my pleasure caught in the cushions. His thumb slides and strokes while his breathing tightens behind me.
I know what’s coming next and my orgasm builds and starts to pulse, waiting… wanting…
The purr that rattles from his chest isn’t the playful one he makes in public. This purr is his jaguar about to pounce. It’s the end of his resistance. His release about to let loose.
The primal rumble ignites my release. I’m surrounded by the smell of our juices, the sinful pleasure of his thumb probing and playing, the slap of flesh on flesh mixing with his cat’s claim of ownership. My jaguar is alpha and possessive.
And by him… I love being possessed.
My body shatters. I come hard, panting into the couch as his breath hitches behind me and his hips slam home and stay thrust tight against me. With a bruising grip on my hips, he grunts and growls, pressing deep into my pulsing womb.
Yessss. It’s a wildling thing, something about mating heat, but one of my favorite parts of sex with these guys is feeling the heat of every spurt and spray of cum inside me.
My mate is marking what’s his.
It’s magical and feeds my phoenix with strength and an unshakable sense of belonging. The guys get off on it too.
It also alters my scent so there’s no doubt to any other wildling, or fae with a sense of smell strong enough to detect it, that I’m taken. That I am theirs.
The soft knock on the door has us both straightening. “It’s only me,” Kotah says from the other side of the door. “Hawk is finishing up. We’re ready to go.”
“Thanks, sweetie,” I say, sagging. I wish we had ten more minutes so we could enjoy the afterglow, but we don’t.
I grab my pants pooled around one ankle and hustle toward the adjoining powder room. “Give us two minutes.”
CHAPTER TWO
Jaxx
I escort Calli back into the open hangar and we merge with the stream of bodies heading to the trucks. With my hand on the small of her back and my mark fresh on her skin, all is right in my world. I’m so freaking in love with her it’s ridiculous. Every time I’m inside her, I’m humbled. Her wildling side grows stronger and more confident by the day. Her phoenix is close to emerging—and she’s going to be spectacular.
She is already spectacular—she just doesn’t realize it yet.
Kotah returns from the farthest SUV and meets us at the threshold of the open hangar door, umbrella in his hand. The rain has eased to a misty drizzle, the sun pushing at the seams of the silver sky to make an appearance.
He kisses Calli’s cheek and flashes me a sexy-as-fuck smile. “Apologies. I didn’t mean to rush you.”
I smile and shake off the apology. “Nah, we’re good.”
“You’re incorrigible,” Hawk says, rolling his eyes.
Calli lets off a burst of laughter and accepts Kotah’s hand. The two of them climb into their seats and settle in.
I turn to Hawk, who seems more than a little put out and close the truck door for a private word. “Seriously? You’re pissed we stepped away for fifteen minutes?”
“I’m pissed that we’re in a crisis, speaking with business professionals, and my mates are acting like horny teenagers when we’re all adults.”
I throw him a cocky smile. “No. You’re an alpha who doesn’t like to share—especially with another alpha. What’s the harm here, Hawk? We got bored. We took a moment. I bet you no one else even noticed we disappeared.”
“Six hours after you two went at it at Northwood Hall. Try a little restraint, Jaguar.”
I turn my back to the truck and lower my voice. “This mating is bound to be different for each of the five of us. You can choose to address our mate alignment by making travel arrangements and enjoying a palm-warming stroke and choke alone at night. That’s not me. I choose to lavish her with the love and acceptance she never got and build her confidence. If you spent more time inside her, you’d realize how much the connection coaxes out her wildling side.”
