Private Release

by Amy Ruttan

  Adele reached out and touched his knee. “I’m sorry.”

  Étienne shrugged. “It’s why I don’t generally like humans. I’ve had many near misses with hunters.”

  “I understand.”

  “Good, so I’m sorry I was a douche to you, but you were human and my chief was in love with you.”

  Adele’s heart fluttered. “Yet, you want me to come back to him. I’m still not Mukswa and I know Jared is your leader.”

  “Chief.” Étienne nodded. “He is, but he bonded to you.”

  “Bonded?”

  Étienne sighed in what seemed like frustration.

  “I’m sorry, I’m just trying to understand your species. I still can’t believe Gordon is one.”

  Étienne grinned. “It’s okay. I don’t talk to many people. Both human and Mukswa find me a bit intimidating.”

  Adele laughed. “You? I find that hard to believe. So Jared’s bonded with me?”

  “Yes, when males bond they can’t be without their mates. They don’t think about others, they only want their mate. That and he’s miserable as shit without you.”

  “How does one claim a mate? Do they get married?”

  “They mark their mate.”

  “He wants to mark me?” she asked, eyeing his scars.

  Étienne nodded again and stood up. “He does. I know it’s a lot to take in, but it only hurts for a moment. Like a scratch, not many males know this, unfortunately I do. Come back to Winnipeg, Adele. You’ve no reason to stay away. Come back and put him out of his misery. He’s been in a funk since you left and I can’t take his goddamn moping for one minute more.”

  Adele chuckled. “I don’t know, Étienne. He didn’t come for me.”

  “Because you told him to leave you alone and a male always listens to his bonded mate’s wishes, even if it’s detrimental to him.”

  “I should let him suffer.”

  “Then make him suffer, in your presence, in Winnipeg. Don’t subject me to his Emo crap anymore.”

  Adele bit her lip and then placed her hand over her belly. If her child was half Mukswa and needed to shift, she wouldn’t know what to tell him or her. Besides, she loved him and missed him.

  She’d been a coward to run away two months ago.

  “What if your clan doesn’t accept me?”

  “They have no choice but to. You’re their chief’s chosen mate. We’re not really a democracy.”

  “Tell me how you found me.” She saw the look of annoyance spread across his face and she held up three fingers. “Girl Guide promise it’s my last question.”

  “I’ll only tell you if you agree to come back. My job is secret.”

  “That’s blackmail.”

  Étienne cocked his eyebrow. “Oh, yes? And what do you think you were doing?”

  “How did you find me?”

  “I track and bring home our missing clanspeople.” “And his fiancée? What about her?”

  “I think he told you that was over.”

  “Shouldn’t he be with his own kind?”

  “He wants to be with you, Adele.” Étienne held out his hand. “Come back home.”

  Adele stood and took Étienne’s hand. She wasn’t sure what she was thinking. She’d been burned by love before, but she couldn’t deny her child its father and she couldn’t deny her heart.

  Even though Jared hurt her. She still loved him and it was apparent he loved her too. Étienne was the type of person who would never beg. Of that she was really certain.

  “Étienne, I need time. Please, just will you give me time?”

  Étienne nodded. “If that’s what you need.”

  * * * * *

  Once again Jared found himself staring out over the lights of Winnipeg. Only it wasn’t a spring breeze blowing across the city. The air was mild and quite warm for May.

  Below him, people were celebrating the return of Beare Enterprises funds. Étienne had also tracked down several missing clanspeople, but not all of them yet. The shadow of Levi had finally been washed away.

  There was happiness in the air for his people. Jared wished he could rejoice with them, but hadn’t the heart for celebration. There was no joy for him because he was still without his mate.

  Adele. God, I miss you.

  Jared missed Adele with every fiber of his being. He wanted to be the one to track her down, throw her over his shoulder and drag her back to Winnipeg and his bed, but she told him to leave her alone and that was what he had to do.

  A week after the incident in Duff Roblin Provincial Park she’d sent him a USB stick with all the information pertaining to the case, as well as instructions on how to retrieve the extorted funds. But when he sent Étienne to her apartment to thank her on his behalf, Étienne told him that her apartment was empty.

  Adele was gone and he didn’t know where.

  There was a hollow pit in his stomach. Where was she?

  He just wished he had one more chance to hold her in his arms, taste her lips, touch her skin.

  He didn’t want anyone else. Only her.

  The elevator doors dinged as they slid open behind him.

  “Étienne, is that you?”

  Jared let out a sigh when Étienne didn’t respond, but he could hear footsteps behind him.

  He scrubbed his hand over his face and headed back into the suite. When he glanced up, he froze at the sight of the woman standing there.

  Her hair was shorter. Instead of below her waist, it came to just above her shoulders and instead of two crutches she leaned on one. He also noticed she was fuller around the waist and when he cocked his head to the side, he could hear her pulse racing. Her heartbeat was faster than usual. There was a glow to her countenance, but despite all those changes, it was her.

  She was back and standing before him.

  Jared prayed it wasn’t a dream.

  “Adele?”

  Adele didn’t cringe or shy away as he took a step closer.

  “Are you still scared of me?” He hoped she wasn’t. He remembered how she said she wasn’t fond of bears, that they occupied nightmares in her past.

  “No. I’m not. Perhaps my dreaming of bears was fate’s way of telling me I’d find you one day.”

  He grinned. “I’d like to think so.”

  “Why didn’t you come for me?”

  “You told me I couldn’t.”

  Adele dropped her head and then laughed. “I guess I did.”

  “You seem to accept that answer easily.”

  “Étienne explained how it worked. I told you to stay away and you had no choice but to listen.”

  “Do you want me to stay away now?” Please, God, don’t ask me to stay away.

  “God, no.”

  It was all he needed to hear to close the distance between them. He pulled her tight against his body. Her scent was different. It was no longer green tea, but coconut and something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on, but it was her. It was Adele and that was all that mattered. “I’d never hurt you. You know that? When I’m in bear form I’m still me.”

  “I know.” She dropped her crutch and then slipped her arms around his neck, her fingers tangled in his hair. “But you did hurt me, Jared.”

  “I know. I thought I was doing the right thing by the clan by marrying Cassandra, but I wasn’t. The right thing was to choose the right mate and that’s you, Adele. I love you.”

  “I love you, Jared. I was a fool to leave.”

  He tipped her chin and pressed his lips against hers in a possessive kiss, conveying to her that she was his. Always.

  Only a kiss was not enough. Not when he’d been deprived of her for far too long. He scooped her up in his arms and carried her to his bedroom. He was never going to let her have a separate bedroom from him again.

  Hell, he’d never let her two feet from him. Not for a long time.

  When he set her on the bed and began to work on the buttons of her dress she stilled his hands.

  “Étienne told
me something else.”

  “What?”

  “You want to mark me.”

  His cock hardened and he swallowed the lump that formed in his throat. “I do, but I won’t hurt you.”

  “Mark me,” she said.

  He closed his eyes, the inner beast in him growling with appreciation. “Adele, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “I do.” She undid her buttons. “Show me your claws.”

  He lost all control as his claws erupted from his hands, but he retracted them again. “Now, get naked.”

  She grinned. “Only if you mark me.”

  “Adele…”

  “No, you have to mark me right? That’s what Mukswa do. They mark their mates, then they’re as good as married, correct me if I’m wrong.”

  “Yes. If I mark you, you’re mine.”

  “Then mark me. Take me from behind and leave your mark on me.”

  “I can’t scar you.”

  “Your scar I would gladly bear.” She slipped her dress off her shoulder, revealing her breasts. “Mark me.”

  Jared growled, losing all semblance of any control. He tossed the dress away, flipped her over onto her stomach, her ass high in the air, her pussy wet and ready for him. He thrust his cock into her slick heat. She was so tight, so hot around him. His claws lengthened and he pressed them into her flesh, scoring her skin, marking her as his mate.

  She let out a small hiss of pain. “Don’t stop.”

  He finished marking her and then gripped her hips as he rode her hard and fast, his cock pumping in and out of her. He let his hand drift over her abdomen, she’d put on some weight, but it was good. He liked a woman with curves. His fingers parted her folds and he rubbed her clit in time with his thrusts.

  Adele cried out as she came, her pussy clenching his cock hard. Jared came, giving her all of him.

  She was his now. The mark on her shoulder told everyone she belonged to him. He slipped out of her and then gingerly touched her back. Unlike Mukswa females Adele wouldn’t heal as fast and the beads of blood made him feel a pang of guilt.

  “I’ll be back.” He ran into his bathroom and retrieved some gauze. She was lying on her side and wincing. She was in pain. “I’m sorry for hurting you.”

  “It just stings. Like a scratch.”

  Jared chuckled under his breath. “Well, this will help.” He applied the gauze and taped it.

  “It’s okay, you don’t have to do that.”

  “Yes. I do. You’re not Mukswa, besides I don’t want you getting your blood all over my sheets.” He chucked her under the chin and then climbed into bed beside her. “I love you.”

  She touched his face. “I love you too.”

  Jared kissed her. “Never leave me again.”

  “Where would I go?”

  “Medicine Hat apparently.”

  Adele chuckled. “My grandparents live there.”

  “Still, you had to put ten hours between us.”

  She cocked an eyebrow. “It was safer that way.”

  “Because of my animal-like nature.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

  “You’re impossible, Jared Stevens.”

  “My sister always called me weird.”

  Adele laughed. “Not weird. Sexy, but not weird.”

  He growled appreciatively. “How about you show me how sexy you think I am.”

  “Ever do the sixty-nine?”

  Jared’s cock sprung to life. “Oh yeah.” He helped Adele get into position, her beautiful cunt just inches from his face, as her hand palmed his cock. When her tongue touched the tip of his dick he bucked his hips up at her and brought her sweet pussy to his mouth, licking her engorged clit with his tongue. The wet heat of her mouth was like heaven and he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold it in much longer.

  And he was right. As she came against his mouth he shot his seed into hers. When they were finished he carried her to his bathroom and helped her clean up before taking her back to his bed.

  Their bed.

  Adele ran her finger around his nipple, making it form into a hard peak. He let out an appreciative growl and tickled her back, where he’d marked her.

  “Are you okay? Does it hurt?”

  “No. It doesn’t, surprisingly.” She ran her hand down his chest toward his cock.

  “If you keep that up, you’ll be flat on your back again.”

  “Why do you think I’m doing it?”

  He chuckled. “Your heart is still beating quite fast. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine. I’m pregnant.” She leaned on one elbow and watched the look of shock spread across his face. “I thought for a bear you’d be more in tune with that. Étienne explained a bit about your kind on the car ride back to Winnipeg. Something about females and heat?”

  “You’re pregnant?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “Well you see—” He silenced her with a kiss.

  “You know what I mean, you minx. You told me that you couldn’t get pregnant the conventional way.”

  “That’s what I was told, but when I questioned my physician in Medicine Hat she said it was a one in a million.”

  “I didn’t think it was possible for a human female to carry one of ours.”

  “Well, you’re the only one I’ve been with in a long time.” Adele kissed him on the tip of his nose.

  “Good,” he snarled playfully.

  “I guess I’m really bound to you. I hope Étienne will like our baby, being as how it’ll be half human and all.”

  “He’ll have no choice.”

  “He said he was a tracker, bringing people home.”

  “He told you that? He never tells anyone that.”

  “I kind of dragged it out of him.”

  Jared laughed. “You must’ve won him over.”

  “I must’ve. He said he was heading out west after he dropped me off.”

  Jared nodded. “I’m sure he’s gone off again on another search.”

  Adele touched the scar on his shoulder. “Levi shot you?”

  “Yes and I wasn’t able to shift. I couldn’t, until you released me.” He pulled her across his chest and she felt his hard cock pressing against her backside. “I love you, Adele. You’re never allowed to leave me again.”

  She kissed him. “I love you too, besides I may have regained some strength, but I still couldn’t run fast enough even if I tried.”

  And there was no way she’d even contemplate such a thing.

  Jared and his kind were her world now. With the sting of the mate mark in her back, she knew she’d finally found where she belonged.

  About Amy Ruttan

  Amy discovered her love of the written word when she realized that she could no longer act out the fantastical romances in her head with her dolls. Writing about delicious heroes was much more fun than playing with plastic men dolls with the inevitable flesh-colored “tighty whities”.

  She loves history, the paranormal, and will spew out historical facts like a volcano, much to her dear hubby’s chagrin.

  When she’s not thinking about the next sensual romp, she’s chasing after two rug rats and reading anything spicy that she can get her hands on.

  Amy welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

  Tell Us What You Think

  We appreciate hearing reader opinions about our books. You can email the author directly or you can email us at Service@ellorascave.com (when contacting Customer Service, be sure to state the book title and author).

  Also by Amy Ruttan

  Bentley Gal

  Fondled and Gobbled: Going Back for Seconds anthology

  Fox’s Bride

  Gladiator’s Atonement

  Gladiator’s Revenge

  Gladiator’s Seduction

  Hard Candy

  Love Thy Neighbor

  Male Order

  Masque of Desire<
br />
  Mounted Release

  Rain God

  Warrior Unbound

  Print books by Amy Ruttan

  Finely Aged anthology

  Fox’s Bride

  Tantalizing Treats anthology

  Tempting Turquoise anthology

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing

  www.ellorascave.com

  Private Release

  ISBN 9781419946677

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Private Release Copyright © 2013 Amy Ruttan

  Edited by Shannon Combs

  Cover design by Fiona Jayde

  Cover photography by Artem Furman/Fotolia.com

  Electronic book publication June 2013

  The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

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