“You came back?” I ask with a shaky voice. “I don’t think Carl will let you back in.”
“I never left.”
I gulp.
“You… waited here? For what?”
But I already know. I can feel it inside.
“For you,” he says as his blue eyes bore into mine. God, I want to run my hand through his blond hair so freaking badly. “I waited for you.”
We stare at each other for a long moment and the spring air charges with electricity all around us. I can feel the sparks tickling my skin.
“What did you mean when you said… I’m yours?” I ask him.
He steps up close and I suck in a breath. My lungs stop working as he reaches up and tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
“I mean what I said.” Fuck, his voice is like sex for the ears. “You belong to me.”
“I do?”
I’m standing there staring up at him like a dope. I should storm out of here like the feminist I thought I was. I should tell him that no man owns me. That I belong to no one but myself.
But I can’t. I want to be his. My whole body is begging me to submit to his every desire.
I can’t explain it. I don’t understand any of these intense emotions swirling through me.
“You do,” he answers in a deep territorial voice that fills me with lust. I want him to pick me up with those big strong hands, throw me into his truck, bring me home to his bed, and do every naughty thing that’s racing through my mind right now. “Your sweet lips are mine alone to kiss. Your hands won’t touch another man’s skin but mine. We’re mates, Kimberly. Now. Forever. We belong to each other. You’re mine. I’m yours. That’s how it is.”
He says it with such certainty that I can’t dare to question it. I already believe every word he said.
“You’re a bear shifter?”
He slowly nods his head up and down.
His possessive blue eyes are locked on me, making my heart pang, making my breath quicken, making my pussy even wetter.
“And you think I’m your mate?”
“You are my mate,” he quickly corrects. “Can’t you feel it?”
I do. There’s something between us that’s growing with every second this beautiful man is in front of me. A connection, a bond, a something that I don’t want to let go of just yet. I want to explore it and feel it some more.
An older couple pulls into the parking lot and excuses themselves as they walk past us to the front door.
“Maybe we should talk about this somewhere else,” I say when I remember that I’m standing in front of my place of work. And with the heated way this sexy rugged man is looking at me, I don’t want to be in view of my coworkers when what I’m hoping is about to happen next happens.
“Let’s take a walk,” he says as he wraps his arm around my shoulder and pulls me away from the diner. “We can get to know each other.”
“Okay,” I say as his hand slides over mine. My heart does a little flip when he takes it.
Feeling his skin on mine sends a jolt straight to my throbbing clit. My core clenches as I feel his strong fingers wrap around my hand.
“So, you’re a fireman?” I ask. “And a bear shifter?”
He nods.
What the hell? Did I just win the single woman lottery or something? How did I get all the luck?
He tells me about his family that lives in three towns over—his parents and two younger sisters. He moved to Blackcloud Point when he saw that the firehouse was hiring. Him and Blake had hit it off right away and he offered him the job.
“And what about you?” he asks. “Where have you been hiding from me all of these years?”
I smile as his grip on my hand tightens.
“I’m actually from Canada. Manitoba.”
“Why did you leave? Did you have a bad experience up there?”
I notice his body tighten as he waits for my answer. This man is already so protective of me, ready to run off and hunt down anyone from my past who’s ever treated me poorly. I don’t have anyone who fits that description, except maybe Jenny Collins, the bitch who bullied me in the ninth grade.
“No, it was fine,” I say, opening up to him as we walk over a quiet bridge that arches over a lazy river. “Just boring. I felt a pull to come down here, so I did. And then I found the awesome excitement that is Carl’s Diner.”
“You felt a pull to come down here?”
I stop in the middle of the bridge when it hits me. It was the pull of my mate I was feeling. I was being pulled to him, just like I am right now.
“Mates can be on the opposite sides of the planet and still feel an irresistible attraction to one another,” he says as he looks down at me with a hungry look that sends arousal coursing through my body. “This was inevitable, Kimberly.” He steps in closer and I feel my body heat up. My cheeks blush and my pussy burns. I’m wondering if he can smell my arousal as he lets go of my hand and grips my waist with his big palms. “We are inevitable.”
My heart is stopped and my nipples are hardening against the inside of my bra as he moves so close that I can feel his hot breath teasing my flushed skin.
“So, to answer your question from earlier… Yes. You are mine. Your body was made for me and I’m going to protect it, cherish it, love it, spoil it, worship it, and make love to it every second I can.”
Oh god… His lips are so close. I’m so fucking wet.
His grip on my waist tightens and I whimper as he pulls me closer. So close that my breasts press against his chest. So close that all I can smell is his intoxicating scent. So close that my chin is arching up, begging for his sexy lips to touch mine.
“You belong to me, Kimberly,” he growls on my lips. “This thick sexy waist, these beautiful round tits, your hot little pussy that I can smell is craving me, and these soft luscious lips. They’re all mine and there’s nothing that’s going to stop me from claiming what’s mine.”
His arms wrap possessively around me and I melt into his embrace as he kisses me hard. My legs buckle, but his strong arms hold me up as his silky tongue slides between my parted lips and he claims my mouth as his own.
My heart races as I recognize the intense beautiful feeling. It’s so familiar. I’ve felt it before…
The loving presence I felt whenever I touched myself… It had no face before, but it does now. It’s Westin and it always has been.
He is my mate. There’s no denying that now.
I wrap my arms around his massive body and kiss him back with everything I have, finally feeling like I’ve arrived home.
Chapter Four
Westin
Kimberly’s hands are moving up and down my arms as we crush our lips together. It’s a hard desperate kiss that’s fueled by all the time we’ve spent apart.
These are the first lips mine have ever touched and they’re softer than I could have ever imagined. I don’t know how I’ll be able to break apart. I feel like I could fall into this kiss forever.
I slide my hands up her thick curvy body and she moans when I pull the elastic from her ponytail to let her hair fall down.
“Mmmmm,” she moans into my mouth as I sink my hands into her thick sandy-brown hair. Her silky waves swallow my hands as I massage her scalp and kiss her deeper.
My cock is rock hard and aching as it strains against my jeans, desperate to get out and penetrate something. I feel the wetness as pulse after pulse of pre-cum oozes out and makes a mess in my boxer briefs.
Her breasts are pressed against my chest and I can feel how hard her nipples are. It’s taking every last ounce of self-control and restraint I have not to tear every shred of clothing off her sweet soft body. I’d strip her naked, bend her over the bridge railing, and thrust my hard cock into her tight little pussy if there wasn’t the risk of people driving by and seeing what’s for my eyes only.
“Westin,” she gasps as I pull away from her mouth and start kissing the side of her jaw. “I believe you now.” Her sexy throaty voice is bar
ely above a whisper. “I am yours.”
I’m kissing her neck when the beast in me starts to make his demands.
Mark her neck. You’re right there…
Do it! Make her ours!
My body starts trembling as my lips connect with the spot where my mark should be. My thoughts turn barbaric, my desires primal.
She’s too pure and innocent for what I have planned for her. I should leave her innocence, but I know I’m not going to do that. This girl makes me weak. I’m helpless when it comes to her.
I need every inch of her. I need her to be mine.
My grizzly is getting impatient as I lay a soft trail of kisses along her neck. I dig my erection into her thigh and the moan that leaves her swollen red lips makes my body burn with need.
I’m drawn back to the spot on her neck where my mark belongs. I kiss it over and over again as I feel her heart pounding against mine.
I can smell this girl’s arousal and knowing that any shifter that walks by can smell it too is making me and my bear crazy.
I need to have my mark on her. I want every shifter who sees her to run in the opposite direction or risk facing my wrath.
My bear wants the same. He’s urging me, begging me, snarling at me to sink my teeth into her soft flesh and mark her as our own.
The thought of those wolf shifters with their eyes on her, with Lincoln’s arm around her waist, is pushing me over the edge.
My whole body gets tense. I start to feel twitchy all over. A surge of adrenaline flushes through my veins, causing a pounding in my ears. When I picture his hand on her waist, his fingertips digging into her flesh, something in me snaps.
My bear charges up and my body swells. My canines extend and I feel him close to the surface—close enough to fill my head with his possessive thoughts.
Do it! he screams and this time, I listen.
With a possessive growl, I sink my sharp teeth into her neck and mark this ripe curvy girl as my own.
Her hands tighten on me and she whimpers as the coppery taste of her blood fills my mouth. It tastes so sweet. I’ve been waiting for this my entire life and now it’s here. This girl is mine.
My mate is mine.
I slide my teeth out and kiss the wound as my bear slinks back down, satisfied that she’s now got our mark on her.
The wolves would never have pulled that shit they did earlier if my mark was on her neck like it is now. They wouldn’t have looked at her ass, they wouldn’t have made any crude jokes. Their eyes would have been on the table and they would have shown her the respect that Westin Wood’s mate deserves.
I pull away and look down at her. Tears start filling her hazel eyes and my heart breaks knowing I was the cause of each drop.
“Why did you do that?” Her eyes are full of betrayal as she grabs her neck and backs away from me.
I let her go even though all I want to do is hold her tightly against me. It pains me to see her backing away like this. Full of confusion. Full of fear.
“Kimberly…” I say as a tear runs down her cheek. “It had to be this way. You have to believe me.”
She shakes her head as she turns, still holding her hand to the mark. “I don’t want to see you again,” she says in a quivering voice. “Ever!”
She runs and I can’t help but follow her. I catch up to her easily, but I keep my shaking hands by my sides and fight the urge to grab her and pull her back into my embrace where she belongs.
“Let me explain,” I beg as we arrive back at the parking lot of the diner.
“No!” she shouts as she runs to her car. I don’t like the look of it. It’s too old and doesn’t look safe enough to be carrying around such precious cargo, but now is not the time to tell her that.
“I can’t let you go,” I say to her. I’m standing behind the car as she opens the door.
“You fucking bit me.” She throws it at me like a knife that sinks into my heart. Her hand is still on her neck, covering the spot as she stares at me in disbelief.
“I need you to understand.” I can hear the anguish in my voice. It’s crippling me. “I had to. You’re my mate and that’s something that—”
“I’m not your anything,” she says as she gives me one last nasty look.
She disappears into her car and slams the door. I jump out of the way as she backs up, nearly taking my legs out.
My bear starts snarling within. I can’t let her go. Not like this.
What if someone takes her? What if she disappears back to Canada?
My heart is pounding, filling me with a panicky feeling.
The white lights disappear on the back of her car as she throws it into drive. I leap forward without thinking and grab onto the bumper, holding her car in place.
The wheels start spinning into the dirt parking lot as she floors it, but I’m not letting go. Her front tires are screeching as they spin and throw dirt onto me as I lift the back of her car off the ground.
She honks the horn in frustration, but I hold on. My arms are burning, my whole body is flexed. My feet start slowly dragging along the dirt as I grunt and hold her back.
With a loud metallic crunch, the bumper rips off her car. I fly back with her metal bumper in my hand as her back tires hit the ground and her car takes off.
“No!” I gasp as I watch her squeal onto the road and take off around the corner.
I drop my head and curse under my breath, feeling like the biggest failure in the world.
Marking her was supposed to make her mine, but all it did was make me drive her away.
I look back at the diner and see everyone inside plastered against the windows as they watch me. Some are even filming me with their phones. I carry the bumper over to my truck and dump it into the back with my heart breaking.
This didn’t go as planned. At all.
When I arrive back at the fire station, I tell the boys what happened.
Carter and Ethan are deathly quiet as they listen. They have mates too, and they can imagine how horrible I must be feeling right now. I know they would die if Chloe or Aubrey left them.
Rylan is staring at me in shock. “You found your mate?”
“Aren’t you listening?” I answer back. “She left me.”
There’s jealousy written all over his face. “You’re so fucking lucky.”
I know how badly he wants to find his mate as well, but I’m anything but lucky.
Blake puts a hand on my shoulder and nods. “You’re lucky, Westin. She’ll be back.”
I wish I could believe him.
But I don’t…
Chapter Five
Kimberly
“What the hell happened to your car?” Debbie asks when I walk into the diner in the morning.
She knows what happened. I saw her watching in the window as that barbarian Westin ripped the bumper off my car.
“Fender bender,” I say as I give her a look.
“And what happened with you and Westin?”
This is what she really wants to know. I can tell that she’s very curious. She won’t leave me alone and is following me to my locker in the back.
“He’s a jerk,” I say as I open the locker and throw my purse inside.
Even as I say it, a part of me knows that it’s not true.
I’m conflicted and torn. For some reason, he fucking bit me. What the hell was that? But for some other reason, I’m still attracted to him.
“What did he do?” she asks as she hangs on my every word.
My hand goes to the tingling spot on my neck where his teeth sank into my skin. The weirdest thing was that it didn’t really hurt. It did at first, but once he removed his teeth, it felt good. It tingled and sent warm shivers racing through my body.
And I felt even more drawn to him. The pull strengthened.
It hurt to run away from him, but I had to. I didn’t know what else he was going to do.
He is a stranger after all.
“Well?” Debbie says as she waits for my answe
r.
“Don’t you have customers out there?” I ask.
“Yes.”
I laugh. “Don’t you have to go serve them?”
“Oh, they can wait,” she says with a dismissive wave of her hand. “Hearing this is more important. What did he do?”
I back away from her as I put my apron on. “Can you just… let me have a coffee first? I barely slept all night.”
“Because Westin was on top of you making you scream?”
No, because he was in my head all night making me twist and turn. I couldn’t stop thinking about him.
I tried touching myself to put me to sleep, but that just made it worse. I couldn’t get any relief no matter how many orgasms I had.
Instead of imagining the warm, comforting presence I normally do, it was Westin I was thinking of. I kept picturing him kicking down my door with that same territorial look on his face as he stormed into my room, ready to claim his mate.
Even now, I’m getting all worked up thinking about the way it would feel to have him climb on my bed and hold me down. I shiver when I think how it would feel to have his tremendous weight pushing down on me.
“Why are you blushing?” Debbie asks as she gives me a knowing look. “Were you up all night mating with your mate?”
“Ugh.” I push past her and head straight for the coffee machine in the diner. “I can’t deal with this right now.”
I catch myself glancing out the window to see if Westin’s truck is in the parking lot before I grab the coffee pot. A hint of disappointment fills me when I don’t see it. I really hope he didn’t take it seriously when I said that I never want to see him again.
Debbie crosses her arms and stands beside me, waiting.
“Are you going to get back to work?”
“Are you going to tell me what happened?”
We both stare at each other, waiting for the other one to crack.
“Are you going to be like this all day?” I ask her.
“I’m going to be like this all month,” she says with a firm stare. “All year if I have to. I’m not leaving you alone until you tell me.”
Destined to the Alpha: Alphas in Heat Book Three Page 3
