by M. L. Briers
“Interesting…” Malachi said beside her as he read the thoughts within her mind.
She didn’t hear what he’d said, her heart was thumping too loudly within her ears as her blood rushed through her veins like a raging river…
“You might want to know that he saved her life not too long ago…” Malachi offered the words towards Declan. The bear shifter stood stock still eyeing Dougie as the man tried to pull his own bodyweight back onto solid ground…
With a roar of anger from his bear within him, and a subsequent growl that Declan spat out of his lips, he stalked forward and reached out a hand to the man…
Dougie’s eyes locked onto that large hand, debating if the offer was for show or not…
“Don’t wait too long. I might just decide it’s easier to let you fall,” Declan snarled down at him.
Dougie didn’t need to debate his options for too long. He took the chance and released his claws from the tree. His hand locked around Declan’s wrist and he felt the hard lock of the man’s hand around his own, squeezing with extra zeal … just for the hell of it.
He decided that the bear was on the up and up, and let go of the tree altogether… Declan waited a long moment before he yanked the wolfman up and back onto solid ground, releasing his wrist the instant that he knew the wolf was clear of the edge…
“I should have let you die,” Declan spat out. His bear agreed wholeheartedly with that sentiment…
“Maybe you should have, maybe if the tables were turned I would have…” Dougie growled back.
The shifter didn’t appreciate the thought of being beholden for his life to the bear. Neither man had any time for the other, and they’d been butting heads for as long as night had turned to day on the mountain.
“Do not tempt me into throwing your backside back over the edge,” Declan growled out.
“What the hell is your damned problem anyhow? Her?” Dougie tossed an absent hand towards Lucy and she seemed to snap to attention at that, snapping her head back on her neck as she eyed the men.
“Wait for it …” the vampire’s teasing melodic tones made her ears prick up…
“You had your turn with her … don’t be greedy…” Dougie bit out…
There was a roar of rage that exploded out of Declan’s body and his fist swung through the air, too fast, and without enough warning for Dougie to duck away from it. It landed against his jaw and sent the shifter flying backwards through the air.
He landed with a hard thud against the ground, his head bouncing off of that same tree trunk that had saved his life, and Lucy heard that thud alright. The punch and the landing.
“She’s my mate …” Declan growled out to a look of sheer surprise on the wolfman’s face…
CHAPTER FIVE
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“I bet you didn’t see that coming …” Malachi offered to Lucy, noting just how similar the look was on her face was to the wolf shifter below them.
Lucy reeled from the words. Her mind spun and tossed like a fishing boat on an angry sea.
Her stomach pitched and rolled inside of her from the news, and she didn’t know whether she was coming or going … but she did know that she wanted to get the hell out of there, and be safely back home within her bed, under the duvet cover … where the world couldn’t find her…
But Declan had already found her.
The man was standing not thirty feet away from her, and as he turned his head and his eyes locked with hers … she felt the last of the blood drain from her head…
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Lucy didn’t know how she managed to push up to her feet … how her brain managed to tell her legs to move in that semi, mind blowing, turmoil that swept through her … all she knew was that she was headed somewhere away from all of them.
Somewhere far.
Anywhere far.
She’d started to run and she wholeheartedly intended to keep running until the end of time or her body gave out, whichever happened sooner.
“Problem!” Malachi offered down to Declan, hooking a thumb over his shoulder. “Your mate’s on the hoof.”
“You let her run!” Declan growled out in sheer disbelief, as his bear roared within him once more, pressing to burst out of his body as he started up the ridge on fast feet…
He wasn’t about to let her get away again. Not now, and certainly not like that.
“I didn’t see it as my place to stop her,” Malachi offered back, as he folded his arms across his chest and waited for the man to scale the ridge.
Declan grunted in annoyance as he ran by the vampire as fast as his legs could carry him. He had her in his sights and that was good enough to be able to keep the bear at bay, but if he lost her then all bets were off and the bear would probably win the day, burst free, and track her scent until it found her… and that wasn’t the kind of introduction that Declan wanted his bear to make to his mate.
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Lucy was done with tripping over things. Her legs were tired from the climb over the rough terrain to get to the drop off, and now she was running across the pitted landscape of the wilderness…
Her arms protested. Her chest protested. Her lungs strained to breathe, and her legs were becoming so damn tired that they were refusing to work properly.
She felt drained, as if every muscles, every sinew, every fibre of her being had been infected with the worst flu known to man … man flu.
She detested physical exercise. Wouldn’t be caught dead in a gym or jogging, and now she hated that she regretted those choices.
It was fair to say that she probably couldn’t outrun any one of those men if they chased after her, but right then; she didn’t think that she could outrun a turtle.
She did managed to multitask and spit out curse words as she went though … that was when she heard the sound of thuds coming from behind her, and her ears somehow picked up the sound of breaths being panted out…
Please don’t be a wild animal…!
Anything but a wild animal…
She begged, and she knew that when those idiots did it in horror movies she snorted her contempt for them, but she really couldn’t stop herself from tossing a look back over her shoulder…
Ah crap!
Serves me right!
I really shouldn’t have looked!
She’d caught sight of the madder than hell bear man that was coming up fast behind her, chasing her down like a scene out of one of those movies that she detested but couldn’t help watching from behind a cushion.
Anything but a wild animal … and him.
Run!
He’s real … this is no movie…
No fake blood … real blood…
They’ll be real blood everywhere as he rips out your intestines and eats them ….
Ok, maybe not, but run!
Run like your legs aren’t made of jelly and your lungs aren’t kaput!
Don’t stop…
Don’t slow…
Don’t look back over your shoulder again…
She groaned as she did just that, tossed another look over her shoulder to find him closer now … so damn close … too damn close…
I said don’t look over your damn stupid shoulder you idiot scream queen wannabe!
Lucy felt the large hands grip her jacket and yank her backwards through the air. Her feet actually left the ground as her back hit something very hard, very solid, and very growly…
A heartbeat later and she had a pair of strong arms wrapped around her body, holding her tightly, but she managed to kick backwards with both feet … maybe not the best idea that she’d ever had, she decided, when she felt her feet get entangled in his legs, and then they going down.
One moment she was looking at the grass as it came rushing up at her and the next she was somehow looking at the grey sky with the snow filled clouds …
The hard thud of the impact with the frozen earth went through Declan’s body a
nd into hers, knocking the air from her lungs and making her mind spin with wonderment at how she’d suddenly got to be on top…
In a normal world she probably should have been flatter than a cartoon cat being run over by a steamroller, but somehow, she was now looking up at that sky, and as irrational as it sounded, she was thinking about snow…
Then a hard, angry growl rumbled all around her and made her gasp the air back into her lungs, and she wasn’t thinking about snow a moment longer as she lifted her arm and jabbed her elbow backwards into his gut as hard as she could manage…
There was another long growl as her elbow skidded off his ribs, and then her world turned once more and she was on her back on the ground with that damn bear shifter glaring down at her like she’d done something wrong…
“Do not try to injure me, you will only hurt yourself,” Declan had tried to contain the beast from his voice as much as he could, but the damn bear was as mad as he was that she’d run…
“You mean as opposed to you doing it for me,” Lucy bit back as she brought her hands up, fingernails intent on his face, but his hands caught her wrists and he pinned them back against the snowy ground as she spat fire from her eyes.
In that moment, Declan was glad that she was all human and not a witch otherwise he might just have been cinders in the snow.
“I’m not trying to hurt you … I’m trying to stop you from running…” His beast wasn’t best pleased with her on so many levels, and boy did he concur. The woman was testing his very last nerve…
“Don’t touch me you … you …” She bit down on all of the words that came to mind and some that she had to reach for. Not one of them wasn’t a curse word…
“Mate,” he growled out.
Eye to eye with her now as they both panted like wildlings. He watched her blink twice…
“I wouldn’t be your mate if you were the last man on earth,” she ground out between clenched teeth…
Declan narrowed his eyes on hers. His mind was all over the place but the one thing that he knew to be true in that moment was that she meant every word of it.
He grunted in annoyance as his bear sung a sorrowful tune within them…
I just need to woo her…
I’ll do it right this time…
“You bit me…” she hissed out with accusation in her fiery eyes, and Declan held in place, glaring down at her, trying to judge if she was still telling the truth…
Her eyes didn’t lie and there wasn’t an ounce of deceit that came from her.
“I did not…” He started and her eyes flicked down to her left shoulder.
Declan hastened to release her wrist. His hand went to the neck of her jacket and he wrenched it over, exposing her shoulder as he yanked her upwards so that he could see her back…
And there it was … his fang marks in her flesh … newly marked and sealed…
Declan tossed his body away from hers, landing on his pride on the hard ground as his eyes roamed the snow for a way to explain what he’d done…
He’d lost control. Gotten drunk and lost control of his mind…
Now she was marked.
His mark.
His mate.
Claimed.
The shame… His beast growled back at him…
“Damn, Declan, you’re gonna fry for this!” Dougie sneered back, but the vampire’s fist came up and hit the shifter hard in the face, sending him down to the frozen earth like a ton of bricks…
“Say nighty-night,” Malachi said with glee.
CHAPTER SIX
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“What does that mean?” Lucy demanded as she looked from Declan to the vampire and back again.
There was a low, mournful sound that was coming from Declan’s chest and she might not have known how to speak bear, but she didn’t like it. It grated over her nerves and made her edgy…
Declan pushed up to his feet in one fast movement and her eyes followed him up. He couldn’t look at her … the shame that he felt was ripping at his guts like sharp claws.
He set off away from them on fast strides that ate up the distance back towards the ridge. Lucy balked … not only was the man walking away without telling her what was going on, but he was leaving her with a damn vampire and an unconscious wolfman.
“W-wait!” She called out to him.
She scrambled to her feet and started after him, but Malachi stepped out in front of her and blocked the way…
“He needs a moment,” Malachi offered with that soothing melodic tone and she bit down on the need to punch someone.
It wasn’t like she was a violent person, but right then and there …
When in damn Rome!
“Look, no offence, but you’re a vampire and quite frankly I don’t relish being this close to you,” Lucy bit out, trying to sidestep him, but he moved in time with her, blocking her way once more.
“Really? Because your blood smells divine,” he offered back with a teasing glint in his eyes that made her snap her head back on her neck and scowl up at him as if he’d just shown her his fangs.
“That’s vampire humour?” Lucy said, unsure.
“What makes you think that?” Malachi teased back, and she snorted her contempt for him.
“Where’s he going?” Lucy tossed a hand up at Declan’s broad back as the man continued to stalk away from them.
“Not far…” Malachi assured her, but funnily enough she didn’t feel to assured by the man’s presence or the one that was walking away from her.
“How do you…?”
“Because any moment now his brain will fart and he’ll realise that he’s left you with me, and Sleeping Ugly there…”
Sure enough there was a loud roar of annoyance and Declan turned back on his heels towards them again.
“Ok, so you were right …” Lucy took a breath… “Now tell me what Dougie meant by Declan frying for this …?”
“Hmm, I could tell you …” Malachi started and then clammed up.
“But then you’d have to kill me?” Lucy offered back, and watched as a slow grin took one side of Malachi’s lips upwards and his eyes glinted with amusement.
“You’re a mate – if I kill you I’d be hunted down and sautéd on a spit roast.”
“That’s … an image I’m not going to be able to shake for a while,” Lucy bit out as her eyes flicked back to Declan as he grew closer.
His eyes were downturned towards the ground and he was growling and muttering like a madman looking for a padded cell.
“Glad I could be of assistance…”
“You haven’t, not until you tell me what he meant,” she pointed at Dougie as the man stirred…
“One moment please,” Malachi said.
Then he reached down, fisted a handful of the man’s jacket, lifted his upper body up to meet the fist that he brought down into his face, before he dropped his back to the ground with yet another thud.
Lucy winced.
“Where were we?” Malachi straightened up and brushed down the sleeves of his jacket before returning his eyes to her.
“You people are …” Lucy set one foot in front of the other, trying to sidestep the vampire, but he went to block her. Her hand snapped up and she pointed her index finger right in front of his face…
“Don’t you dare!” she hissed out.
The vampire frowned, considered it, and then he gave a small curt nod as he swayed back into place. She set off on fast feet, stalking towards Declan as he snapped his eyes up only briefly, before growling and muttering something under his breath.
“I demand to know what the hell is going on!” Lucy had just about had enough of supernatural men for one day.
Declan ground to a halt. He bit down on another deep growl and cursed himself up and down dale for what he’d done…
“I …” he bit off his words as shame swept through him once more.
“Okay, your fault…” Lucy said, and his eyes flicked up to hers only briefly. “Keep going!”
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“Marked you as mine, claimed you. Bonded…” he growled at his bear and the beast growled back.
Lucy wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. Sure, there had been books written about the shifters and their rituals since they’d first emerged into the world, but she’d never bothered to read them … why would she? She wasn’t one of those shifter groupies that trawled bars and hooked up with…
“You thought I was a shifter groupie last night!” Lucy bit out, acid in her tone, and a whole lot of anger deep within her.
“No!” Declan growled back, but he still didn’t lift his eyes to hers. He couldn’t, his shame was too great… “At least … at first I might have…”
“Nice!” Lucy spat out. Folding her arms across her chest and grumbling those words that were in the forefront of her mind once more…
“But then you said I wasn’t your type and I thought…”
“You actually had a rational thought … like two whole brain cells collided to make one thought?” She shot back and he grumbled some more…
“But then this morning when you weren’t there when I woke up…”
“So, twice, you thought it twice…?” she ground out.
“But then when I scented the air…” he offered…
“And what about what he said?” She demanded, motioning back over her shoulder at the unconscious wolf shifter, not that Declan was looking at her, because he wasn’t…
“That I was going to fry…?”
“Yes!”
“I claimed you as mine without your permission …” Declan growled in his shame, shaking his head slowly on his neck…
“So, we’ll get a bear divorce type thing!” She shot back…
“That’s actually called death,” Malachi offered from close behind her, and she dropped her arms and rallied around towards him…
“What?” She spat out, her voice becoming shrill…
“His, not yours.” Malachi offered her a small assured smile and she snorted at him before turning back towards Declan…
