There’s no way in hell she doesn’t know I’m here, I can sense it in my bones. But she refuses to meet my gaze through the window. The shiver that races through her, and the trembling of her hands as she brings her mug to her lips is the only sign she gives that she knows I’m watching her.
Go. Away. The words bounce through my skull. Foreign and yet familiar, and I know they’re hers.
Does she even know that she did it?
A small chuckle vibrates in my chest because I know in this moment that no matter how much she dislikes me right now, our connection is strong.
I’m coming for you, sweetheart, I push back. And don’t even think about running this time.
Chapter 12
Adelaide
The grizzly attack is all anyone can talk about. When I stop at the grocery store to get limes for gin and tonics on Saturday night, the cashier mentions that one of the locals had been mauled. The waitress at the local diner asks if I’ve heard about the tragedy when she brings my friends and me our burgers and fries on Sunday afternoon. And on Monday, the mechanic at the auto shop who is repairing my car tells me to be careful when I go out.
And this is Alaska - where people are supposedly tough as nails. Turns out when a beloved member of the community is killed in a bear attack, everyone’s guard goes way up.
When the cashier, waitress, and mechanic all realize I’m a Spencer, I’m given all kinds of condolences. Everyone here remembers my grandfather just as fondly as I do. And it connects me to this recent death.
I’ve lost a family member because of a bear as well.
I’ve lost my virginity because of one too.
Why am I still thinking about that? It’s been three days. Three days where Gunnar doesn’t once try to reach out and call me. Three days of radio silence. Which, I mean, isn’t that unexpected considering how clear I was about not wanting to have anything to do with him.
But if I were really his mate as he says I am, wouldn’t he have fought for me?
I’ve got to get a grip. I swear my mind is playing tricks on me. Even now, as I sit here sipping coffee, scrolling through my Facebook feed, all I can think about is Gunnar. It’s like he’s talking to me.
And I’m talking back.
I set down my phone with a groan as the words I’m coming for you, sweetheart reverberates in my mind. A shiver races through me, but at the same time heat pools in my core.
“You okay?” Harley asks, looking up from her spot on the floor. She has her paints and brushes all spread out as she is trying to organize her supplies.
“I’m just sick of thinking about Gunnar.”
She grins. “For a guy you’re totally over, you sure are mentioning him a lot.”
“I know,” I sigh dramatically. “I’m such a cliché.”
“I think he’s an ass for not calling, but maybe there’s still something there between you guys.”
I bite my lip. This girl has no idea. This is more than something. This is...I don’t know what, but I have been doing my due diligence on shifters over the last few days as I’ve been agonizing over the situation.
Yes, he killed my grandfather, but if the books I’ve been reading hold any truth, it turns out shifters don’t always have control over when and where they shift. Sometimes the animal takes over. Not that it excuses his behavior, but it makes me wonder if I know the entire story. After all, I was a lot younger, and memories are a tricky thing.
“Hey, I know what you need, a rebound,” Harley says as Piper and Kate walk into the room, stacks of empty cardboard boxes in their hands. They’ve been unpacking all morning. “Why don’t we shower and put on clothing besides leggings and go to the bar? We’ve been inside all day.”
“It’s only four in the afternoon,” I tell her.
“Which means it’s happy hour!” Piper says dramatically, an infectious grin spreading across her pretty face, making the offer impossible to resist.
A little less than an hour later we’ve cleaned up and are walking down Main Street to the one and only bar we’ve located. I’ve packed my gun in my purse and, while it seems intense to be carrying heat, the bear attack has made me more anxious than ever. A thought runs through my mind - I wouldn’t be scared if Gunnar was here to protect me.
I push the thought aside. I do not need to be thinking about Gunnar that way. He’s a bear himself.
But it’s like I can’t help it. He’s constantly in the forefront of my mind.
Everything I’ve read about shifters over the last few days - which, yes, I spent a lot of time reading obscure websites on shifter theories - points out that once a shifter has imprinted on you...you are done for. You are theirs, signed, sealed, delivered.
More heat. More shivers. More disconcerting thoughts flash through me. Which is frustrating to no end. Why does he have the right to claim me as his anyway? Shouldn’t a relationship be a two-way street?
Not that this is a relationship.
It’s nothing. It’s—
I stop mid-thought as I’m yanked back by my arm and a horn blares before a truck drives by, precariously close.
“You okay, Addie?” Kate asks with worry in her voice. “You just walked into the street.”
“Sorry,” I say, looking around, feeling flustered. “I just got lost in my thoughts.”
Harley groans. “Girl, you have got to move on.”
“I don’t have to do anything,” I say, defending what, exactly? I shake my head and apologize. “Sorry, I’m just a little on edge. Maybe you’re right. I just need to have some fun.”
Piper pulls open the door to the bar and the heavy thumping of base blasts into the street. She grins and says, “Then it looks like we came to the right place.”
Chapter 13
Gunnar
I’m home, taking a shower, trying to wash away the last three days on the trail. Hating that we weren’t more successful on the hunt, I scrub the three day’s worth of dirt from my skin with all the frustration I’m feeling. A fucking grizzly with a mind to kill has no place in Bear Valley. Being a Koleman means more than just being a shifter, it makes me a protector of this town. That something happened on my watch fills me with guilt. How the hell did a grizzly walk straight into town without us noticing?
It makes me regret not emerging in my bear form more often and patrolling our territory. For so many years I’ve been torn up about my shifting, hating the power I held and didn’t know how to harness. But now I wish I’d stretched my legs, shook out my fur and let out a deep growl, feeling comfortable in both my skins. Maybe I would have done better on the trail if I’d practiced more.
Still, it’s not like I was working alone the past three days. I was with my brothers, and other Kodiaks had taken up the search. We all had one intention. Still do. Find that fucking bear and teach it a lesson.
Yes, I want to avenge Lloyd’s death, but I have ulterior motives. I want this land safe because my mate is walking around these parts and she needs to be protected.
Adelaide. Seeing her today, even just through the window, blasted open all the emotions I’d kept contained on the hunt. But seeing her beautiful face, all that dark blonde hair that begged a man to tangle his fingers in, those lush lips that parted slightly in a gasp when I’d whispered into her mind, had me desperate to touch her again.
The need is overwhelming.
Damn, just thinking about her now gets me hard. I run my hand over my length, the hot water rolling down my back, and all I can think about is Adelaide. Her round, full breasts, her nipples, so nice and hard, and that pussy so slick and so tight, clenching around my shaft as I filled her completely.
Fuck, I stroke myself, imagining her here now, in this shower, my hands running over her bare ass, my cock thick and ready to make her scream in pleasure. She’d been so responsive to my touch. I don’t have anything to compare it to, but I can’t believe from what I’ve heard about people’s first times that our connection was normal. Not even for a mated pair.
Our bodies had been in sync, perfectly matched, and her heart and soul had opened to me. I’d seen it in her eyes.
“Damn, I want her,” I say aloud. But it’s also a call to my mate, and I pray to God she can hear my growl, my roar, my need.
I want her here, with me, so fucking bad. My cock aches for her sweet pussy, and as I move my hand up and down my hard shaft, I think about the way her hips rose to meet mine as I took her virginity in the back of my truck. We made love, her legs wrapping around me as I pumped my thick cock deep inside, as she begged me for more.
I gave it to her, and I want to fucking give it to her again. Over and over, in every position and every room in this house. Once I’ve convinced her that she’s mine, I swear to God I won’t let her leave my bed for at least a week.
Adelaide, my heart cries out.
Damn, my cock explodes, my cum spurting from my tip, a fucking release I wish she was here to enjoy. I lean my head back against the cool, tiled shower, desperate for my mate to come back where she belongs - by my side.
As I turn off the water, I hear my doorbell ring. I reach for a towel and wrap it around my waist before calling out. “Just a sec.”
My body is still dripping wet as I pull open the door, and there she is.
Of course, she’s here.
Adelaide fucking heard my desire - my need - as I touched myself. I can’t help but grin as I look down at her. Her bright green eyes, the flush to her cheeks. She looks as horny as I am, and yet confused and frustrated at the same time, and I wonder if she even knows how she got here, that it was my call she responded to.
“What are you smiling about, Smokey the Bear?” she asks, her words slightly slurred. In the driveway, I see her friends all sitting in the solitary taxi this town owns.
“I’m just happy to see you,” I tell her honestly, leaning with one arm on the frame, trying to keep my hands to myself, especially with her friends eyeing me like hawks, two of them frowning at me, while the other, the one with the funky pink hair gives me two thumbs up.
“Are you?” Adelaide asks, there it is again, a slight slur to her words
“You know I am.” I lean forward, holding her gaze, and growl, “I called for you, you heard me. That’s why you came.”
“I heard...” She hiccups and reaches for the doorframe. I furrow my brows, assessing the situation. When she hiccups again, I know what’s happening. My mate is clearly drunk.
“Are your friends going to wait there all night or should I tell them I’ll get you home safe?”
She leans in, licking her lips, a myriad of emotions playing across her features. “Will you Gunnar? Get me home safe? Or will you rip off your clothes in a rage and let your bear out?”
I clench my jaw and glance over her shoulder, but her friends are too far away to hear her words. “I shifted because the wolves were a threat. A threat to you. And I’ll do it again. I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep you safe.” I cup the back of her head with my palm and lower my face to hers so that we’re only a breath away. “You are my one and only concern.”
Her eyes widen.
“Tell me what you need tonight, Addie,” I murmur, tracing the pad of my thumb across her bottom lip.
She sucks in a small, shaky breath before admitting, “You, Gunnar. I need you.”
I give a hard, satisfied nod as I pull back, then run a hand over my beard. “Stay here, I’ll go tell them I’ve got you.”
“You’ve got me...” She shakes her head like it’s some foreign concept.
I catch her chin between my fingers and kiss her once hard, then speak into her mind, Always and forever.
“Now go inside and make yourself at home.” Because one day it will be. I’d have her moving her things in tonight if I didn’t think suggesting it would freak her out.
One step at a time. She’s here with me now. That’s all that matters.
When I’m a few feet away, off the patio and walking toward the taxi, I glance over my shoulder and catch my mate checking me out, and for the first time in years, I think that maybe there’s something to this whole shifter thing after all.
I glance down at my bare chest and the towel wrapped around my waist and smirk, realizing that all my insecurities about my body, the deep scars that crisscross my chest and side are gone - because of her.
“She’s staying with me,” I say when the more serious of the three pops her head out the window.
“Figured as much.” She raises a brow at me. “If you make her cry again—”
“I won’t. She’ll be safe with me. But the three of you need to stay inside. No wandering the streets until the bear is found.”
It’s a warning that I don’t think they take seriously, which confirms what I already knew, Adelaide didn’t tell them about me.
“Just be good to her,” the redhead says, all three clearly love her. “Addie isn’t like other women, she’s—”
“Special,” I offer, glancing back at my mate, who is practically pulling me back to her with her thoughts. Our connection will be a powerful thing once I’ve taught her how to use it. “Yeah, she’s the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever met. Trust me, I don’t want to screw this up.”
“Then just screw her,” the one with the pink streaks in her hair says, giggling, getting an elbow in the side from the redhead. It’s clear that they’ve all been drinking.
“Get them home safe,” I say to the driver before tapping the roof of the taxi, then turning back to my house, with one purpose - to possess my mate, and consume her body, heart, and soul.
Chapter 14
Adelaide
I don’t even know how I got to Gunnar’s house or how I knew where he lived, but maybe it was my intoxicated state that let my guard down, allowing the voice to guide me. I’d told the driver where to turn, while my friends giggled in the backseat, thinking I’d completely lost my mind.
And yet I’d found him.
Or he’d led me here.
God, you’re beautiful, that same voice that had called to me says. But it’s more than words, it’s like I can feel Gunnar’s essence, his desires and needs, even his insecurities, which right now are centered around me forgiving him, accepting him.
And I want to.
But first I need answers. Whatever this thing is between us, if it’s going to work, I need to know the truth...about everything.
He stalks back toward me as the taxi drives off and the feral look in his eyes has me taking a step back.
I’m a little tipsy. Okay, probably more than a little, but I still know my mind, know what I have to ask him.
I put my hand up, my palm resting on his chest, stopping him from coming any closer. “I heard you.”
“What did you hear?”
“Your voice. In my head. How did you do that?”
His shoulder lifts and falls. “I don’t know. But you can do it too.” He leans closer, his scent filling my nostrils, fresh and earthy and all male.
It makes my brain go foggy, but I blink and try and to stay focused. “What do you mean?”
“I hear you too.” His palm covers my hand that’s still on his chest, over his heart. “We’re connected.”
“Okay,” I say, voice shaky. “Say I believe that. Believe all of this—”
“It’s not about whether you believe it, but whether you’re able to accept it, accept me.”
That’s his fear, that I’ll reject him. I don’t want to, but...
“My grandfather...”
He winces, walking past me and heading toward his bedroom. I follow him, watching as he reaches for a pair of sweats and pulls them on. Even though I want to give into the physical pulse drawing me to Gunnar, I need the truth more.
“I need to know what really happened,” I tell him.
He nods. “I know. And I wish I could give it to you. But honestly, that day is a blur. I just remember my dad—”
“Your dad?”
Grief pulls at his features as he sits down on
his bed. “We’d been roaming the woods. There’d been a grizzly spotting. They’re not allowed in these parts, and...” He shakes his head. “That doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’d gone too far south. My father had warned me my entire life not to roam that area in bear form. It was Spencer land. But I’d caught the scent of the grizzly...and then, I’d seen you.”
I swallow, still standing in the doorway of his bedroom, watching him as he struggles with the memories. The memories that are becoming clear and vivid like I’m reliving them.
My bear.
Had I known then who he was? Were our souls already destined to be together? It wouldn’t be any odder than anything else that’d happened.
“There’d been another bear,” I offer, letting him know that I remember.
His lips stretch tight. “My dad. Your grandfather shot him. Killed him...”
“Oh, Gunnar, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“He was protecting you. I have to believe that.” His brows furrow and I can tell he’s not a hundred percent convinced. “There’d been some attacks earlier that year. Rogue grizzlies that were never caught.” His face twists in grief. “I don’t remember attacking him, maybe I’ve blocked it out...” He presses his knuckles to his mouth and closes his eyes. “But not a day has gone by that I haven’t felt the guilt over it.”
“That’s a heavy burden to carry.”
“One I deserve. But one that I also hope you’ll eventually be able to forgive me for.”
If I hold onto my distrust, my blame, then I should stop this thing between us now. But there’s the connection, the way I can feel him...the way I know his heart just by being in his presence.
It’s the heart of a good man, not a killer. Whatever happened in those woods all those years ago wasn’t cold-blooded murder, it was a response to watching his father being gunned down.
I walk toward Gunnar, dropping to my knees in front of him, needing the truth. “You said that you have to believe my grandfather was only protecting me. What did you mean by that?”
Untamed Virgins (Mountain Men of Bear Valley Book 1) Page 7
