“Show me,” she said. He let off a small sound, somewhere between a sigh and a growl, and he picked her up bodily and laid her on the bed face down. She pulled herself up on her hands and knees, and watched him over her shoulder, this huge, sexy man, his hunger to mate her burning in his eyes.
He entered her fast, letting off a roar as he slid all the way home, his hands cupping her breasts.
“I’ve wanted this so badly,” he growled. “And now you’re mine.” His teeth bit down on the back of her neck, hard enough to draw blood, and she cried out. But the pain was gone in an instant, replaced by a heat that seemed to suffuse her entire body. “My mate. My beautiful mate,” he crooned. He thrust hard, in and out, in and out, setting her body on fire. She came again and again, one climax spilling into another. Mating was rough. He’d been rough before, but this was different. It was possessive and wild, and she finally understood what it was to mate.
At long last, Xander came, his thick cock pulsing as he filled her with his seed. “I’ve marked you on your neck and you’re mine forever now, Freya,” he said, as he drew her into an embrace, her body shuddering with ecstasy.
Chapter Twenty
The following day, Freya parted tearfully from Xander. He said he’d try to see her along the way, but he didn’t want to intrude on the trek. It wouldn’t be fair on the other girls.
“Three more months, then we’ll be together forever, my beautiful mate,” he said, as her hand slid away from his regretfully.
Marin and Eloise’s hostility to him eased when she told them everything that had happened.
“You’re really going to live in Broken Hill?” Eloise breathed.
“You think that’s weird?”
“No I think it’s kind of cool. It’s a nice community. Especially now that his brother has left.”
“I think so too. Do you know, I think it’s the first place where I’ve really felt at home since I was small,” Freya replied with a grin.
*
They continued to make good progress on the trail, often exceeding their target for the day. They all became noticeably fitter and stronger, and Eloise was finally able to keep up with the others. Freya never saw Xander along the trail, but she felt his presence, and he’d sometimes message her and tell her what she’d been wearing. As much as she missed him, it was a comfort to know that he was there, watching over them.
Things were going well, almost too well, when they reached Oregon and the rains began. They’d expected it from the trail guides, and were well equipped with rain gear, but the deluge was still a shock, making the trail very muddy and slippery, and drenching their packs. As they passed into Washington it got worse and worse, and they all gritted their teeth and focused on the end of the trail. They’d started to lose time, the difficult conditions slowing their progress considerably.
The target day for finishing the trail passed, and there were still many miles to go. And then Freya’s phone got wet. She watched it fizzle out, cursing the fact that she hadn’t memorized Xander’s number.
“How is he going to know when to meet me?” she muttered, staring at the blank screen in dismay. Is he still checking in on us? She was aware that they’d travelled far, far north of Broken Hill, wherever it was.
At last, after more wilderness and national parks, and hunger and exhaustion, the end of the hike came, right at the Canadian border. They’d passed the latitude of Freya’s hometown, but she’d been so weary by then that she hadn’t marked the moment.
“We’re here. We’ve done it!” Marin said, in the tone of someone who’d just arrived there spontaneously, rather than having spent the past five months walking the entire length of the USA. They laughed and cried and hugged each other.
“Well done, ladies. I’m so proud of us,” Freya said. They took a selfie at the boundary marker and compared it with the one they’d taken at the beginning of the hike. They looked way healthier, with glowing skin and shiny hair. They’d each lost quite a few pounds, and their smiles were even bigger.
“I can’t believe it!” Eloise kept saying. Freya began to look around surreptitiously for Xander. She didn’t want to ruin the moment, but she was terrified that she’d lose him forever if they didn’t find each other now. He wasn’t there. Of course he wasn’t. He wouldn’t have been hanging around here for ten days after she was supposed to arrive.
“What shall we do? Steak? Cocktails? Hot tub?” Marin said, full of ebullience. “And how do we get out of here?”
“Uh, let me check.” Eloise flicked through the trail guide on her phone. “Ladies, you’re not going to be delighted to hear this, but it looks like we’ve got a 30-mile hike to the nearest town. There’s no public transport out here, and there’s no thru traffic, so we’re not going to be able to hitch.” The girls gave a collective sigh.
“All this way, and we’re still not there,” Freya said. “Okay, let’s figure out where we’re going to sleep tonight, and if we’ve got enough food to keep us going.”
They had just about enough scraps of food between them to sustain them for one more day, and they found a spot about ten miles away. Complaining loudly, they shouldered their packs again and began trudging along a dirt road.
“Do you hear that?” Freya said after a minute or so.
“A car?”
“Yup.” They stopped and watched as a large, black truck approached along a winding road. It came to a stop in front of them. The door opened, and a very tall, very well-built man climbed out.
“Xander!” Freya screamed, rushing toward him, pack and all. He held his arms out and laughed, and she stumbled into them. She laid her head against his chest, listening to his slow, steady heartbeat, then looked up at him, grinning at the happiness in his face.
“Congratulations. You made it!” he said.
“I was worried we were going to miss you, because my phone died and I had no way of contacting you,” she said.
“I know,” he said with a chuckle. “I waited for you on the day you were supposed to arrive, and when you didn’t come, I went looking for you. And when I saw how wet you all were, I figured something had happened to your phone. To be honest, I felt so badly for you girls then that it was all I could do to stop myself from coming to rescue you.”
“Ah, it wasn’t so bad,” Marin said, coming up to join them. “Nothing we couldn’t handle.” All three women burst out laughing. The final stretch had been unbelievably hard, but they’d made it, and it was all behind them now.
“I knew how pissed you girls would be when you realized you still had 30 miles to go, so I brought the car to pick you up,” Xander said, nodding toward the car. “That’s unless you prefer to hike?”
“No!” they all yelled, already running to the car.
“I’ll drop you all off in town and leave you to celebrate together,” Xander said as he drove them to the nearest town.
“No, you have to come too!” Eloise called from the backseat. “We’ve got so much to tell you.”
“Are you sure?” he said, his brow furrowing.
“Absolutely!” Marin said and Freya squeezed his arm in delight.
“Okay, I’m in!” he said, and they all cheered.
*
It was a fun, rowdy night, full of steak, cocktails and stories in a classy diner with dim red lighting and bare-brick walls.
“Did you all achieve what you set out to do?” Xander asked, late into the night.
“Yes – I finally finished something that was really hard,” Eloise said.
“Yup. I completed the trail. With the exception of one notable section,” Marin said, rolling her eyes at him sarcastically. “I trod the path that my grandmother walked so many years ago. I’ve renewed my friendship with these guys, I’ve got fit. And I feel all round much better for it. I’ve also decided to return to college and retrain as an ecologist.”
“That’s great, Marin!” Everyone said, and clinked glasses with her.
“And how about you, Freya?” Xander
said, his voice instantly becoming tender when he spoke to her. She nodded, weighing up her words.
“I did the trail to find my heart in Washington. But it turns out I found it on the way instead.” Xander broke into a grin of delight. He reached across the table and took her hand, his eyes communicating what he couldn’t say in words in front of the others.
“You’re a good guy, Xander,” Marin said, with drunken ebullience. “I hated you at first, of course. But I think you’re pretty decent now.” He grinned.
“Why thank you. I’ve always liked you, Marin. And please feel free to come visit – or to move to Broken Hill – any time you like.”
They called it a night just after 11. Freya crawled into bed, too tired and full of margaritas to think about anything other than sleep. Instead, she curled into Xander’s warm, naked body, laying her head against his chest and feeling his arms wrap around her, as if they were made for her.
“Goodnight, baby,” he murmured, kissing the top of her head. “Sleep tight.” And that was the last thing she knew until the morning.
*
They all stayed in town for a few days. Together, they went to visit Freya’s hometown, and Xander watched in delight as she exclaimed over all the things she remembered from her childhood. The little house where she’d lived for the first nine years of her life was still there. The exterior was bright and pretty, and the trimmings were freshly painted. There was a slide and some swings in the front lawn, which was surrounded by little flower beds.
“It looks like a happy house, doesn’t it?” Freya said.
“It does,” Xander agreed, resting his arm around her shoulders. “When we have cubs, they’re going to have so much stuff to play with, and I’m going to love them until they’re sick of it.” Freya opened her mouth and closed it again. They hadn’t discussed having kids yet, although seeing her childhood garden like this was making her feel incredibly broody. “I can’t wait for you to bear my cubs, Freya,” he whispered, too quietly for the others to hear.
“Really?” she said, her stomach tingling with butterflies.
“Yup. You haven’t yet been fertile when we’ve mated, but that’s going to change very soon.” Freya gasped, and she was about to ask him how he could be so sure, but then she stopped herself. He’s a bear; of course he knows these things, she reminded herself.
“Is it a good experience being back here?” Eloise asked, walking over to them.
“It is. I can tell it’s doing my soul a lot of good. But –” she trailed off.
“You still feel like something’s missing?” Eloise said, with her characteristic empathy.
“I do. But I have no idea what it is.”
The following day, Freya figured it out.
“Would you guys mind coming to the zoo with me?” she asked all of them at breakfast. Three pairs of eyes looked back at her, full of understanding.
“Not at all,” they said, one after the other. She and Xander looked up the zoo on the internet, discovering that it had morphed into a sanctuary, taking in animals that had been maltreated at other zoos and circuses. She heard Xander letting off a sigh of relief.
“You weren’t looking forward to seeing a bunch of unhappy animals in cages, were you?” she said.
“I wasn’t,” he admitted. “But I was more than willing to suppress it for your sake.” He hugged her from behind, and she had to force herself not to cry. She could never get used to how strong, yet how caring he was at the same time.
As they all entered the zoo gates, Freya tried to imagine herself as the child she’d been; how excited she would’ve been to see all the animals and spend time with her dad. And then she looked at her two best friends, who’d just accompanied her on a 3,000-mile journey, and her incredible shifter mate, and she finally felt peace in her soul. Her dad obviously had a lot of issues, but adulthood had given her the freedom to find love, and at long last, she believed that she deserved it. As if sensing her emotions, Xander put his arm around her waist.
“You’ll never be on your own again, baby,” he whispered. “I’ll always be here for you.”
*
Eventually, the girls decided it was time to go back, and they took the Coast Starlight train from Seattle to LA, so they could watch the scenery going past in reverse. They parted tearfully, with promises to come and stay at Broken Hill.
Freya spent a couple of days showing Xander all the delights of modern American life, going to the movies, the fun fair, playing crazy golf and a ton of other fun games. By the end of it, he had a sparkle in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before.
“I think I just learned to relax,” he said.
At last, it was time to begin the long drive back home. “How do you feel?” Xander asked Freya, once they were on the road.
“I feel whole,” she said immediately. “Like that black hole that sat right where my heart should be has gone, and instead, all I feel is love.” He flashed her a dazzling grin, leaned over and kissed her cheek.
“Me too, baby. I also feel like I can’t wait to take my incredible, beautiful mate back to Broken Hill to begin our lives together,” he said with that sexy, easy grin of his.
The windows were wide open, allowing the fresh, sweet breeze to blow in, and Freya gazed out at the natural world which had brought her to Xander, lips parted in a grin of pure happiness. She couldn’t wait to get back to Broken Hill either. There were so many things to look forward to – their mating ceremony, moving in to Xander’s cabin, cubs. Spending every day of her life being loved and protected by this incredible man-bear.
THE END
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
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Ariana Hawkes graduated in English and Latin Literature from Oxford University. Since then, she’s been writing full time, for both work and pleasure.
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Bear in the Rough: Bear Shifter Romance (Broken Hill Bears Book 1) Page 17
