by Wyatt, Dani
“I won’t. Mathias, man...” He cranes his neck to look up and I realize they clearly are familiar with each other. “Was just a dumb comment. Won’t happen again.”
“Fucking right, it won’t.”
“Hey, it’s fine...” I start, trying to diffuse the moment, so I can be on my way, but another part of me feels compelled to stay put.
He doesn’t turn, and I find myself reversing my steps, hoping if I retreat, whatever this is will be over.
A low growl vibrates from the human mountain as he turns his head, and I see his face.
Raw. Unbalanced. Rugged.
A little scary.
But sexy in its own way.
His beard is unrefined, his eyes wild, brows arched like a predator ready to pounce.
My breath catches as an unexpected desire surges through me.
Then, reality cools the moment, knowing I need to get out of here and back to my camp. Now is not the time for undue attention.
The Duck Dynasty dude starts again, “Mathias, no deal man. I didn’t know you knew her, I would never...” He leans around the bulk of the man in front of me to catch my eyes again. “I didn’t mean any offense.”
I lick my lips as fear tightens my chest. The entire encounter has taken mere seconds, but time feels slow and I need to get out of here.
The gladiator that’s taken up for my honor turns toward me, and my eyes take in the vastness of him. It’s like looking over an enormous human topographical map.
His arms, hands, torso...hulk like in size, and fire seems to be flickering around my feet as heat takes me over. My face is barely level with his chest, and I stumble back and to my shock, I let my gaze drift lower.
To another sort of tree trunk...pressing outward on the worn denim which struggles to cover an erection that would give any horse a run for their money.
A shiver races up my spine as I bolt back toward my table, grabbing my backpack and making a stumbling beeline to the front door. The conflicting sensations roaring through me make me hot and chilled at the same time.
I fumble with my keys, nearly dropping them before I’m in my car, and to my surprise, even a Subaru can peel out as I take a U-turn in the middle of the street and head back toward my camp.
My heart is beating through my chest as I look in the rear view. The last thing I see before I turn the corner out of town, is another sort of mountain. One stomping out the front door of Duffy’s, all flannel and fire and fists clenched at his sides, watching me disappear down the road.
3
Mathias
I NEVER WONDERED WHAT it might feel like to take a sledgehammer to my chest.
Or, have some invisible hand reach down and grab my balls.
But, now I know.
There she was in the fucking hallway at Duffy’s, the girl from the photo. Making my dick instantly hard, her scent roaring through me like a tsunami.
It took all my willpower not to drag that Fleming brother with his dumb ass ponytail, outside into the alley beheading him for touching her. For fucking breathing near her.
For soiling her with his gaze.
But it all happened so fast, and as much as I wanted to mortally wound him, I couldn’t tear myself away from her. My jaw still aches from clenching my teeth as I watched her drive away. My pick-up was parked behind the bar, so after she disappeared down the road, I marched down the side alley and practically yanked the driver’s door off as I climbed in.
I needed to get up to old Mr. Emmett on Cradle Mountain, because he will shut down my lease in a heartbeat if I’m late for our meeting. I’ve been after him for the option to harvest the burl on his thousand acres for five years, and if I get the contract signed, I can breathe a bit. I’ve got a month to do my prospecting once his name is on the dotted line. But, as soon as that is secured, my next order of business is finding her.
Securing her.
Letting her know...from the moment I saw her face in that photo , I knew.
She’s mine.
Why, I’m not sure.
How, remains to be seen.
Who she is, and what that bullshit with her stepdad back at the station is all about, will get figured out.
It’s all just details.
As I grip the steering wheel in my truck and stomp on the accelerator, all I see is her face. The whole forty minutes it takes to get to Emmett’s place, my obsession for her spins out of control.
I never really understood why I wasn’t like all my friends. Why I never wanted to just get laid. Stick my dick in something to say I’d done it. To not have this branded ‘V’ on my chest.
Now, I know.
I’m different. It happens in nature. Animals wait for their one mate. Maybe there’s some anomaly in my DNA, maybe I’m part wolf. I don’t fucking know, but the one thing I do know is my mind, body and soul have never reacted to a woman like they did to her.
When I find her, I hope she is ready, because she will belong to me. No matter what it takes, I’ll be deep inside her, marking her, breeding her, showing her what she was meant for.
To belong to me.
Astrid
“HOLY SHIT.” I MUTTER as I try to get comfortable on my boulder next to the fire.
When I got back from my outing to the bar I went for a walk, gathered a bunch of firewood, then headed to the river to refill my fire bucket and wash a couple t-shirts and my underwear, trying to keep busy and steady myself.
Even now, sitting here by the fire I’m shaking and trying to figure out what exactly happened in that hallway.
Not the events themselves, it was a standard issue stupid comment from a guy that should have been a non-issue.
Instead, chills and heat race through me every time I think of those silver-gray eyes and flashes of desire double me over, imagining his massive hands on me...what it would feel like to kiss him...to feel that crazy Viking beard against my lips...between my legs.
The sensation of his massive weight on top of me while his cock—
“Argggg!” I shake my head, running my hands through my hair as I try to get a grip.
The spear of lust throbs down low, making it hard to think. I’ve never felt anything like this. Sure, I had a couple dates in high school. But I was never the popular girl, didn’t involve myself much in the Thunderdome of high school society.
Instead, I got straight A’s. Took as many art classes as they’d allow. I played clarinet. Did marching band.
Combine it all with my penchant for baggy pants and vintage sci-fi t-shirts, I landed solidly in the invisible nerd category. And honestly, the invisible part worked for me. Even now, I just sort of want to be left alone.
So, when the hulk in the bar’s vibe hit me directly in my girl parts, fear and arousal went to battle. Fear won out and I bolted, but the feelings that bubbled up in the short time I was near him seem to have only grown.
As much as logic says otherwise, I know this is something. I may never see him again...and that thought leaves me cold, even as the fire blazes in front of me. The warmth of the day is still on the air, but I hug myself, looking at my makeshift home here in the woods, then up at the sky for a sign.
Any sign.
I’m exhausted. Sleep has eluded me for a year or more. I’ve snatched what I can get, grateful for an hour, sometimes two. Since I’ve been here, the weight of the loss of my mother hasn’t gotten any worse, but it hasn’t eased either. Add to that I have no place to call home. No family left, and I get these moments of panic, the unknown gripping around my throat as it is now with the early evening sunlight streaming through the trees.
Lowering my eyes, I dig at the dirt with the heel of my boot and listen to the birds, the loud silence of the forest, my heartbeat thudding in my ears. I close my eyes and let the breeze and tingling sensations move through and over me. I still feel a little drunk, but it’s not the beer anymore. I know, because my nipples are turning hard against the cotton fabric of my t-shirt, and it’s not that cold yet.
An hour later, I’ve dug a hole the size of a basketball with the heel of my boot, and my rear end is aching again. I press up on the boulder, stretching both hands to the sky and walk toward the tree line. I search in the brush until I find a smallish sized downed pine, dragging it back to turn it into logs with the handheld camping saw I bought needing a distraction.
I’m huffing when I finally drop it about ten feet from the tent. The light is dim, outlines show in my vision more than colors now, and my ears prick when I hear a crunching sound coming from my left beyond the line of trees.
I steady my breath, stepping backwards to where my rifle is leaning against a stump just outside the opening of the tent, and slip my hands into place as I strain to see movement in the direction of the sound.
On a slow exhale, I center the butt of the rifle to my shoulder, squinting one eye and centering the other on the scope, then raise my head again to take in the tree line.
More crunching.
The crack of a branch.
Sounds loud. Something big. Not a deer. Or a coyote.
My pulse throbs in my neck as heat covers me.
There’s a new rhythm to the movement. There are steps.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
They are close together, slow but steady, and my heart races, making it difficult to breathe.
I know enough to not keep my food near camp. But I also know, my own scent could draw predators. A bear’s sense of smell is one of the most developed, rivaling that of a shark.
There are no grizzlies around here, but black and brown bears aren’t rare.
There’s a low growl from the opposite direction of the foot falls, and I spin, aiming as the shadow of a massive, bigfoot-sized figure steps out from the tree line and my finger tightens on the trigger.
“I’ll put a bullet between your eyes and one through your heart before you take another step.” I keep my voice steady, loud enough that there is no hesitation in my words, as the fading daylight streaks through the trees from behind, it lights on his face and that warring hot and cold sensation ignites again racing up from my feet to the top of my head.
The figure raises his hands, taking another step forward before planting his feet shoulder width apart, his glowing gray eyes locking on mine.
“I’m not here to hurt you. Don’t be scared.”
“I’m not scared.” I counter back. “I’m the one with the gun.” I keep my eye on the scope, looking at his face and trying to keep my knees from buckling under me.
“I see that.” His voice is low and even. “I’m not scared either.” His voice sounds like the growl I heard a moment ago, low and pained.
The words hang in a moment of silence as my arousal spins inside of me, pulling me, refusing to let go, driving me to move to him, but my feet stay planted.
A momentary flash of our bodies pressed together, a craving knotting my gut, a need for something I’ve never known before, spins the images of his naked body with mine. His huge, towering body, throwing me down like a doll, fingers twisting in my hair, knees knocking mine wide as he drives forward—
The fantasy evaporates as the original sounds of movement from behind me return, closer now. My eyes dart from the giant man back the other way.
Another growl, different this time. It’s rumbling, along with wet, haggard breathing sounds, and I focus, seeing the lumbering, four-legged, black figure moving through the last of the trees, focused on me.
I take a careful step back, rifle scope to my eye as I retreat, then another, but on the next step my foot slips, finding a hole instead of a footing, and my ankle twists painfully to the side, the rifle now pointing skyward as I struggle to right myself, stifling a yelp as I crumple to the ground.
Before I can recover and take my shot, thick, hard arms grapple around my waist, swinging me around and placing me behind his massive body as he runs forward, hands above his head, dueling growls and snarls filling the air.
The bear lurches to his hind feet, huge but not as big as the form of the man moving toward him.
I watch in awe, a scream caught in my throat as the bear drops down, snuffing and huffing, saliva dripping from peeled back lips as the man gives no ground and the bear takes one small step back, weaving its head side to side, signaling retreat.
“Stay behind me.” The commanding voice reverberates through me as the stabbing pain in my ankle competes with the throbbing between my legs.
“Let me shoot him.” I seethe. I’m on the ground, but I’m able to bring my rifle to aim.
“No. He’s just being a bear. He isn’t here to hurt you. He just smelled your camp. He doesn’t deserve to die for doing what he does. I won’t let him hurt you.”
“What the hell are you talking about? He’s a bear. He’ll do what he wants...Move so I can aim.”
“No.” His voice is low as the bear moves back, rounding through some trees to the left and out of sight. “I know this bear. He’s never attacked a human. These are his woods, he wants to know why you are here.”
He lowers a massive hand in front of me, and nods for me to take it. I hesitate, but being on my feet is far safer than sitting here on my ass, so I throw the strap of the rifle around my shoulder and take his hand; mine nearly disappearing inside as he pulls me up with such force he launches me off my feet.
When I settle back on the ground, I wince.
“You’re hurt.” His silver moonlight eyes travel down my body to where I’m hopping gingerly, letting the pain subside.
“I’ll be okay. Just twisted—”
Before I finish, the sound of tearing fabric comes from my tent and I watch as the bear stomps through the nylon, leveling it to the ground in about three seconds. Metal and plastic poles snap, and before I know what’s happening my visitor grabs me around the waist, lifts me onto his shoulder and sets out at a run through the forest, my rifle falling from my shoulder.
“What the hell are you doing?” I puff out, his strides driving the air from my lungs as his rock-hard shoulder pounds into my diaphragm.
“Taking you to safety. You can’t stay here. That bear doesn’t want to hurt you, but he will if you feel like a threat.”
“Oh, and he wasn’t threatened by you running at him like a crazy person?”
His steps slow to a fast walk as I hang over his back, trying to figure out what to do with my hands as I look down and watch his ass with each step, wondering if he is picking up on the scent of my arousal with my crotch so close to his face.
“We have an understanding.” He grunts, and as if reading my mind, he turns his head slightly toward me, taking a deep breath.
His body tightens under me, and I think about fighting him and demanding he set me down.
Instead, I draw my own deep breath, letting his masculine scent and hint of sweat tantalize me as his grip locks down around the backs of my thighs, his own growl vibrating into my belly.
“You have an understanding? With a bear?” I manage.
The course of events in the last couple hours has my head spinning.
Or, it’s the blood rushing to my brain from being carried like a sack of potatoes.
He grunts on a nod, tension in his shoulders as he shifts my body a little higher.
“I’ll keep you safe.” He grumbles, then under his breath he finishes, “Or, maybe, I’ll just keep you.”
4
Mathias
THE YEARS OF ABSTINENCE never much bothered me.
Being a virgin at thirty-five never embarrassed me.
Honestly, it didn’t feel strange to me. Maybe my wiring is just fucked up.
But, right now, standing here staring at this girl that has already wrapped herself around my heart and grabbed me by the balls in the matter of a few hours, all I can think about is throwing her down, prying her legs apart and rutting into her until this wild lust is quelled.
At the same time, deep down I know it will never be quelled. Momentarily sa
tisfied at best. The thought that I would have done the deed with anyone before her? Fuck, turns my stomach. My dick will only know one sweet cunt.
I may be vulgar, but I know what I know, and I know more than ever I was meant to wait.
For her.
I could see the fear in her eyes when she looked at me in the bar, then again when I came through the woods.
It was fate. After I signed the contract with Emmett, I headed back to my place, but I couldn’t get her off my mind. Something drew me east, I told myself I was going to start my burl wood search on that part of Cradle Mountain which borders my land, but in my gut, I knew better so I set off from my cabin on foot.
I wasn’t searching for wood. Not even my prized burls.
I was searching for her.
As soon as I smelled the scent of a fire, there was a knot in my gut, and I followed the trail until I came through the trees to find her facing off with ole Arthur.
It was right then I knew destiny had taken a hand.
I slung her over my shoulder, trudged through the woods with my cock thick and dripping down the inside of my pant leg throbbing for her.
She didn’t fight, which soothed me because I don’t want her to fear me. But I want her to know I won’t be without her.
I want to know everything. What makes her eyes look sad. Why she’s in the woods alone. Her secrets. Her darkest desires. I feel something hurting inside of her and I know it’s my job to heal whatever that is.
So, while I carried her over my shoulder through the woods, I grunted questions. She evaded some, mostly about her family. Having met her stepfather, I already want to put his head through a wall, because I’m sure he has something to do with her being up here and something to do with the hurt I see in her eyes.
I asked about other things. Her hobbies...she’s an artist. She loves old school Sci-fi movies too. Original Star Trek, Star Wars, and she said her favorite is a tie between the original Logan’s Run and the old Planet of the Apes series.
