by M. L. Briers
“I will when you eat something,” he lied.
“I’m not hungry,” she shot back. She wasn’t one to eat for the sake of it, and she wasn’t going to eat to please a vampire.
“I’m ravenous,” he said absently, and noted the way that her neck sort of sunk down into her shoulders as she brought them up to her ears. “Oh, not for you…” he teased, dismissing her worries with a wave of his hand.
“Go away before I find something with which to make you go away permanently.”
“You mean like a wooden stake?” he teased again, and now his eyes were alive with mischief and glee.
“If only,” she grumbled.
“Maybe a cross, some Holy water… no wait! Garlic!”
“Oh, bite …” she stopped just in time, remembering what he was … “Dougie.”
“Tempting!” Malachi offered back. Then he folded his arms once more and regarded her with a more serious mood. “You know you’ll never find true love again…” he offered.
“So I hear,” she tossed her mobile out onto the covers…
“Ah, the internet, good for looking up all the wrong answers to the right questions.” He offered back dryly.
“I can’t make Declan do something he doesn’t want to do … I don’t know him that well, at all really…”
“You’d be surprised what a mate can achieve when she sets her mind to it,” Malachi offered back.
“It also says on the internet that if he leaves his mate then he stands a good chance of going crazy…”
“Most of the time,” Malachi waved his hand at her again. “But you’d be leaving together…”
“But after that…”
“You’d be living together…” he shot back.
“Says who?” She bit out.
“Fate,” he offered back. “And fate has a way of slapping you on the backside if you detour from the plan.”
“So, I’d be stuck with him?”
“That’s one way to look at it … or you could think of it as being blissfully in love with the man that you’re destined to be with f-o-r-e-v-e-r.” He berated her with his eyes and his tone.
“Says who?”
“Fate!” he sighed. “Didn’t we go down this road before, because I’m sure we did?”
“I’m sure you’re as annoying as all hell, but what’s that got to do with anything, right?” she tossed back.
“The point remains …” he held up his hand to silence her from jumping in…
“That he’s a shifter and growly, and I don’t know him from Adam!” She just wouldn’t be silenced.
“You know you talk a lot, right?”
“Right back at ya!”
“The point is … and let me finish …”She huffed at that remark. “He’s your mate, you’re his mate, your destiny is together, and him being prematurely murdered will only bring you unhappiness and life-long misery on the dating circuit, now … is that something you want?”
“I don’t date!” She offered back.
“I wonder why …” he ground out. “Maybe if you’d let a man get a word in edgewise once in a while, things might have gone better for you in the past…” he offered dryly to another scowl from her.
“If you don’t like it then you know where the door is, you seem to have no trouble getting through it.” She grumbled, folding her arms, and pushing back against the pillows as she looked anywhere but at him.
“Oh no, I’m pledged to be eternally at your disposal, as you’ll be mateless and all,” he offered back with a smirk.
“What?” She pushed up again in the bed.
“Declan’s asked me to look out for you for the rest of your life,” he lied. The man hadn’t asked him yet, but he probably would when push came to shove, and if he didn’t … well…
“That’s …” she blustered at the thought. “You can’t …” she shook her head and scowled back at him. “I’m not…”
“Consider me my gift to you,” he grinned and she snorted her contempt for the whole concept.
“Don’t you have a rafter to hang upside down from?” She bit out on the deepest scowl yet.
“I’ll be by your side until your dying day,” Malachi grinned.
“I have no room at my house for a coffin,” she tossed back.
“Harsh,” Malachi offered back, as he pushed away from the ledge and strolled towards the door. He’d given her enough to think about, he only hoped that she acted on it.
CHAPTER TEN
~
“Open the damn door!” Lucy yelled, hammering with both fists this time on the front door to Declan’s cabin. “You bit me, the least you can do is face me!” She yelled out and heard a growled curse from the other side of that thick wood.
Then the door was wrenched open and his black eyes met hers, before he quickly averted his gaze…
“Still can’t look me in the eye, ey?” She bit out in annoyance.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Declan grumbled as he blocked the entrance way with his body, filling it up, and replacing the door with his large frame.
“Too right I shouldn’t,” she grumbled. “Having to drag my backside up here to deal with your pig headed, stupid, moronic…”
“Is there a point to this?” Declan growled.
“No, I thought I’d just drive all the way up here to call you names,” Lucy shrugged.
“Job done then,” he grumbled back.
“Are you just going to leave your mate standing on the doorstep in the freezing cold?” She laid it on thick. According to the internet, bears, mates, were protective…
Declan grumbled a growl, reached out his hand, fisted her jacket and yanked her inside as he stepped back to let her in. Then he tossed the door closed behind her, and all without looking at her.
“You’re in,” he growled.
“Gee, thanks for the invite.” Lucy hissed back. The acidity in her tone didn’t go unnoticed to his ears.
“That’s the point, Lucy. I didn’t invite you here,” Declan grumbled another low growl and the sound played over her body like velvet against her skin. “It’s dangerous to be around me right now.”
“Because of them or because of your bear?” She asked.
“Both,” he scowled.
“Can you look at me when…?”
“No.” He turned on his heels and stalked away from her.
He went to stand in front of the open fire and reached out to the high mantle, resting his hands there for fear that he might just reach out for her if she got too close to him again.
He’d wanted to do it the moment that he saw her. He wanted to reach out and bring her into his arms, love her, take her to bed and never be apart from her again…
But he’d already screwed up once … it wouldn’t happen a second time.
“Coward,” Lucy snapped back, and she saw his back snap rigid, saw the way that his hands fisted, and heard the low, deep rumble of an angry growl go through him…
Declan didn’t say a word. He knew that she was baiting him and he didn’t want to rise to that bait. No now… not when he wanted her so damn badly that he could taste it.
“I can’t change what you think of me,” he offered back, and his bear roared at his words … the beast would fight all comers to prove to her that it wasn’t afraid of anything…
“Sure you can, you’re just choosing not to,” she snapped back.
“You should leave,” Declan growled.
“So should you, but you’re still here,” Lucy stalked towards him across the room and she could see the way that every muscle in his body was moving, tensing under his skin, like some kind of fight or flight effect, and she knew which one she’d bet on…
“I don’t run from my mistakes,” Declan bit down on his shame.
“So, I’m a mistake now…?” She hissed back…
“Not you, what I did to you…”
Declan wanted to turn his head and take her in. He wanted to see the anger in her eyes, because he deserved i
t.
He wanted to see the accusation in her face, because he’d done wrong.
He wanted to see the hate, the disgust that he felt for himself mirrored back at him in her eyes…
“Because you got a little snap happy with your fangs? I’ve had dates throw up on my boots before, stuff happens…” Lucy offered back.
“I should have been able to control myself…”
“Shouldn’t we all … boo-hoo … get over it. I have.” Lucy shot back.
“It’s not that easy, and if you understood the…”
“I get it. I do. But it’s not worth throwing your life away for.” Lucy meant every word.
She’d been marked and healed. Accidents happen every day of the week. This was one of those times.
Was she miffed? Sure, but in the big scheme of life she didn’t see how one drunken mistake could be seen as a reason to murder someone…
Not someone … him.
“You need to go … now.” He growled like a hungry beast and she noticed the change in that sound.
“Make me.”
Lucy’s hands went to her hips and she stood there defiantly. She’d read all about it online. He wouldn’t hurt her because she was his mate … unless he was a crazy bear, but she didn’t think he was … not yet.
Declan rallied towards her. His eyes were jet black and there was a dark storm brewing inside of them.
His hands were tight fists at his sides, and his top lip twitched in anger…
She took a moment to re-evaluate the situation.
Or maybe I could just have invited a crazy bear to do his worst…
What the hell am I thinking?
I’m not the bear whisperer.
I know nothing about shifters … Malachi was right … I’ve read the internet for God sake!
I’m an idiot … a big one …
So what the hell do I do now?
“I will…” he growled with all the menace of a man on the edge…
Lucy knew that the smart thing to do would be to turn and run. Run to her car, get the hell off the mountain and never look back … but she’d never done the smart thing – or the easy thing – the thing that was expected of her …
She guessed that she was one of those people that liked to take the road less travelled … and she’d certainly found that on the mountain, in more ways than one.
“Go ahead,” she shrugged as she held her ground. “Manhandle me out the door …” there was a low sound that rumbled like a growl, but it sounded more soulful … the glare in his eyes softened.
“Don’t tempt me…” he bit out.
“Beat me over the head, drag me out by my hair…” she tossed up just one hand…
“I would never…” he went to take a step towards her and yet something kept him stuck like glue to the spot.
“Batter me senseless, beat me like a whipped dog…” she tossed back at him, and there was one unholy roar that started within his chest and was expelled from his mouth as he stalked those few steps towards her…
Declan’s hands reached for her upper arms and he locked his fingers around them. He wrenched her body forward against his … liking the way that felt, loving the scent of her … and then his lips came down on hers to silence her words … they were just too damn painful to listen to anymore…
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
Lucy didn’t even know that her body could respond to a man like that. The moment that his lips came down on hers she was lost.
Desire shot through her like a thunderbolt and the only thing that mattered one iota to her was him. There was a heat akin to a fever that took her temperature up and filled her with the need to rip off all of her clothes…
Declan was ravenous for her kisses. His kiss was brutally demanding – just like her, he wanted everything and more and he wanted it right then and there.
His hands stripped the jacket off her body as he kissed her like she was his lifeline to the world. His oxygen, his drug, and he couldn’t get enough…
Her hands fisted his shirt and she yanked it upwards, exposing the hard muscles of his chest and abdomen and pressing her palms against the heat of his skin as her fingers climbed, searched, seeking to know every muscle, every sinew beneath his flesh.
He yanked the sweater over her head and broke the kiss for only a moment before his lips were back against hers, devouring her with so much need that it made her head spin.
“No…!” he growled as he forced his body back away from hers. His eyes dropped to the floor between them and he shook his head in denial…
“The hell with no…” Lucy bit out, taking just a single step towards him as her hands reached down for his sweatpants and she yanked them down over his hips, exposing the hard desire of his cock as proof of how much he wanted her…
“That looks like a damn yes to me.” Lucy’s hand was already wrapped around his shaft, and his eyes rolled back in his head as she stroked downwards…
He was lost to her touch, to the need within him to have her, to truly have her as his mate…
“Danger…” he growled out, knowing that he shouldn’t and yet wanting nothing more than to have her back within his arms…
He opened his eyes just at the moment that her knees hit to floor. His brain kicked with excitement and his desire soared as she closed her lips around his cock and devoured him like he’d never known…
Declan reached for her. His big hands were meant to take her away from him, and yet the moment that they touched her hair he found himself fisting the silken strands and groaning as she took him all the way down the back of her throat…
His beast roared at his attempted denial. She was their mate – he was made to love her – just once more … so he could die a happy man…
Spirits help him but he couldn’t deny himself that pleasure a moment longer. She was driving him to the point of insanity, and he needed to do something…
With a hungry growl he released her hair and reached down for her. His hands hooked her under the arms and he yanked her upwards, up his body, as he turned her against the nearest wall…
He wanted the taste of her on his tongue the way that she had him…
“Inside me … I need you…” she begged and he couldn’t deny her that.
His hands made light work of her jeans, stripping them down her legs and away. He ripped the soft fabric of her panties from her hips, and then he palmed her backside and lifted her against the wall…
The feel of her legs encircling his hips felt like a claim on him and he loved it.
He felt the wet heat of her sex against his cock and moved his hips until the tip of his length was nudging against her opening, pressing into the inferno that raged just for him.
With a slow, determined push of his hips towards her; he filled her body, stretching the muscled walls around his girth and taking her to the hilt as she made the sweetest damn sound against his ear that he’d ever heard in his life…
He wanted to hear it again, and again, and confine it to his memory…
He wanted to hold in place, buried to the hilt inside of her and never move, stay like that forever, but the desire clawed inside of him, and her muttered pleas were too sweet a sound to ignore…
She moved with him. Her inner muscles clamped around his length as he pulled back his hips, and then he was buried once more, as he nuzzled between her neck and shoulder and drank in her scent…
His mate.
His life mate … how it should be…
In that moment he wanted to fight everyone on the mountain that they sent after him … kill them all … for her. To be with her…
“Declan…” she said his name so sweetly, so full of desire and need that it hurt his heart.
He moved faster, taking her as deeply as he could, filling her, stretching her body around his like a glove and building that heady friction between them…
Now she was pleading for something else, something more, something that he could willing give
… and he did… the cry from her lips as her body felt that hard rapture of release was moreish.
He never wanted to let her out of his arms. Never wanted to let her go.
Declan spun her away from the wall and stalked towards the bedroom, a growl rumbling through him as he took her down to the bed, caging her body beneath his…
He snatched a look at her as he pushed back. His hips still moving, his body still in tune with hers, still needy…
Her eyelashes fluttered upwards and she stared back at him, a moment before he went to turn his head and look away, but her hands came up and palmed his cheeks…
“Look at me … I’m your mate…” she demanded, and he couldn’t deny her that either.
“Lucy…” his voice sounded strained, tortured, and she felt her heart breaking even as it opened to allow him inside…
“Mine…” she said the word and she meant it. She knew what it meant and she gave it gladly, wholeheartedly…
Declan felt his heart break. There was an empty space that ached inside of him just knowing that this was the most bittersweet moment of his life to date … knowing he might not get anymore.
“Mine…” he growled back, before he took her lips and devoured her with so much passion that she couldn’t hold back the silent tears that welled within her eyes…
He changed then. In that one moment he became serene, at peace with his life, love replaced everything else…
He slowed inside of her, capturing her wrists in his hands and easing them back against the mattress as he loved her like a mate should…
CHAPTER TWELVE
~
Lucy was curled up naked within his arms. Her back was against his chest and everywhere else was touching wherever it possibly could. Skin to skin as nature intended.
Heaven and hell.
He didn’t want to ever lose that feeling. His eyes were on the claiming marks that he’d sealed into the skin of her shoulder. His shame – a shame that she had forgiven him for, but he still hadn’t forgiven himself.
He could run with her. Leave his mountain home and never return. They might have tried to track him, but he doubted it…
