Bear the Consequences

by Rochelle Paige

  His hand lifted the hem of the shirt I’d been sleeping in—the one he’d worn just yesterday and left in the hamper. The shirt I’d chosen so I could have his scent wrapped around me. His fingers brushed over my pussy and I tried to widen my legs. I wanted to feel more of him.

  “Always so wet for me,” he practically purred.

  The approval in his tone made me shiver. His fingers thrust inside me and I pushed against his hand, wanting more already. His fingers felt so good. They brought me so much pleasure each time he took me. But tonight, I needed more. I didn’t want to be the only one driven out of their mind. As much as I wanted the orgasms I knew he would give me, I also wanted to make him lose control.

  His fingers thrust in and out in a slow tempo, building the need inside me until I knew it would burst. It would only take a couple minutes before he worked me into an orgasm. I fought the pleasure as it built, even though it felt like a losing battle. He was just too damn good with those fingers. I moved my hand between us and reached down to wrap it around his wrist.

  “I want to taste you,” I breathed, looking up at him and letting him see all the desire shining from my eyes. He tried to break from my hold, but I shook my head. Pushing his hand away from my body, I moaned as his fingers brushed against my clit. “Not yet.”

  “Why?” he asked, eyes blazing down at me.

  “I need control and I don’t have any when you touch me,” I explained as my hands went to his boxers, lowering them to the floor.

  His cock sprang free and jutted toward me, the head already glistening with moisture. Wrapping my hand around his thick length, I stroked him slowly from root to tip before sinking to my knees. I gave him a few more slow tugs before moving harder and faster until I heard his growl.

  “Finley.” His raspy tone sent shivers along my spine. Glancing up at his face, I was stunned by the stark need I saw there. He’d never looked at me quite like that before.

  Keeping my eyes on him, I leaned forward and put my lips on the head of his cock. His body shuddered as my lips opened over him. My tongue flicked out and swiped the bead of moisture from his tip. His taste was addictive, my tongue licking over him, again and again, before I parted my lips and took him inside my mouth. I circled my fingers around the base of his cock, giving me more control over him as I sucked him deep inside.

  His hands slid into my hair, wrapping it around his fists. I felt a slight stinging sensation as he pulled tightly, his hips thrusting forward. Animal lust shone from his eyes. “Take me deeper.”

  I sucked him harder, taking more of his shaft into my mouth until it bumped against the back of my throat. His taste exploded on my tongue as more pre-come seeped from his tip. A humming noise escaped from my throat, making Alasdair shudder before he pushed me away.

  Before I had the chance to say a word, he shredded my panties and spun me around. Lifting me against the wall, he plunged into me. I locked my legs around his hips and shoved my hips back against his as hard as I could. My nails bit into his shoulders and he thrust harder. My back was shoved against the wall, my mate’s cock pounding inside me. The pleasure was explosive, throwing me over the edge.

  Alasdair was with me all the way. His hips jerking against me, his hands tightening around my hips while he emptied himself inside me. Our eyes locked and I saw the pleasure in his gaze. Then his mouth was on mine, licking deep. My legs were still tight around his hips as he carried me to our bed.

  “You’re mine and I’ll never let you go.”

  The flowery scent of perfume still clung to his skin. “How about you let me go so you can take a shower?” I grumbled, all the happiness I felt from my mind-blowing orgasm shot to hell from the reminder that another woman had gotten close enough to leave her smell on my mate.

  “Look at me, Finley,” he ordered, not moving until I raised my eyes to meet his gaze. “I swear to you, nothing happened at the club tonight. I would never do anything to betray your trust like that.”

  “Okay, I believe you,” I muttered.

  He flashed me a satisfied smirk before leaving our bed. “Good,” he called over his shoulder as he headed for the shower.

  ****

  Waking up alone in bed after what happened last night was both a blessing and a curse. I needed a little time to myself to figure out how I could protect my heart from Alasdair. He wasn’t the mate I always dreamed of having, but that didn’t appear to make a difference because I already went and fell in love with him. And waking up without him hurt—it was just another sign his feelings weren’t as strong as mine.

  I moved through the steps of getting ready in a daze. Before heading downstairs, I heard voices coming from the kitchen: the deep voices of Alasdair, his brothers, and his father. It was the first time they’d all gathered at our home and my curiosity got the best of me. I crept down the stairs as quietly as possible, determined to put my years of eavesdropping experience to good use.

  Chapter 9

  Alasdair

  “Why couldn’t we meet at Dad’s like we always do?” Camden complained. “I could have just walked over and then I’d already be on my second mug of coffee.”

  “I’ve never understood how a caffeine addict doesn’t have their own coffee maker,” Braden mumbled.

  “He’s too damn lazy to make his own coffee. Besides, that would mean he’d have to go to the store to buy one first,” our dad drawled as he walked in the kitchen door.

  “I’m not lazy,” Camden objected, “I’m smart. Why bother making my own when I know there’s a pot already made a couple doors down at your house?”

  “I didn’t want Finley to wake up alone,” I finally answered Camden’s question, interrupting their bantering.

  “You haven’t seemed too worried about it any other day,” he pointed out. I couldn’t even argue with him, he was right. Yesterday was the first time I’d even bothered to come home early and I still didn’t take the time to romance her before fucking her senseless.

  “Is your brother right, Dair?” Dad growled. “Have you been neglecting your mate?”

  “Not neglecting, exactly,” I replied, thinking about the devastation that had been clear as day on her face when I came home last night.

  “She might not be what you were expecting, but she’s yours, and you better treat her like the precious gift from the Fates she is,” Dad chastised me.

  My dad had kept his distance since I mated with Finley and I had assumed it was because he wasn’t happy she was my mate. I’d avoided talking to him about it because I was already struggling with how to move forward with her when I was still so pissed at her dad. The last thing I wanted to deal with was the fact that my family hadn’t exactly been welcoming. If they couldn’t move past the fact that she was a wolf and her father was someone we hated, then I would have to figure out what the fuck to do. I loved my family, but Finley was my mate, and there was no way in hell I was ever going to let her go.

  Talking to Braden last night and hearing my dad harp at me now for not taking better care of her gave me hope that we’d all be able to move past this. At least, until my other stupid ass brother spoke up.

  “Even if her dad is the inept alpha responsible for what happened to our sister,” Camden grumbled quietly.

  “Goddamit!” I growled as I leveled him with a glare, letting him know I had heard what he said and was pissed about his comment.

  “Speaking of her father,” my dad said loudly, talking over me so he could get our attention. “That’s why I wanted us all to get together and talk this morning. He called me.”

  You could have heard a pin drop after that bombshell. I hadn't heard a word from her dad since I took Finley with me three weeks ago. Hell, I didn’t even know if she had talked to him in all that time because her family was a subject I was avoiding. And he sure as shit hadn’t called my dad ever before, which left me with one question. “What the fuck did he want?”

  “To pass along a warning,” he started to explain, holding a hand up when we al
l exploded out of our seats in anger at the thought of Finley’s dad threatening ours. “Not that kind of warning. He heard some information he wanted to pass along because it was about Annora possibly being in danger.”

  “How the fuck would he know whether Annora was in danger now? He didn’t know shit about her back when she was part of his pack,” Camden argued.

  “Apparently his enforcer received a call from his sister, who became part of another pack after getting married. Her mate owns a bar and she overheard someone talking about making Annora pay. She recognized the name and called her brother to let him know. He told Finley’s dad, who then called me about it.”

  “That’s all he had?” Braden scoffed. “Some stranger saying our sister’s first name in some random bar?”

  “We’re not exactly in a position to doubt the information just because it came from someone talking in a bar, boys,” Dad pointed out.

  “I call bullshit,” Camden added. “He’s grasping at straws, trying to build a bridge with you now since his daughter is living here.”

  I was torn over how to react. It was getting harder to hold on to my hatred of Finley’s dad when his daughter was my mate. But not hating someone as much as you used to didn’t mean you suddenly trusted them.

  “It isn’t much to go on,” Dad agreed, “which is why we aren’t heading to Wolf’s Point right now.”

  “You’re just going to ignore my dad’s warning?” Finley gasped from the doorway. She must have been eavesdropping and we were too involved in our argument to notice she was in the hallway. Thinking about our conversation, I cursed the fact that bears’ hearing wasn’t as good as some of the other shifters. Sure, our sense of smell was better, but catching her scent in our home wasn’t enough warning to let me know she had been listening in on what we’d been saying for God only knows how long.

  “You don’t need to worry about anything happening to Annora or Kyla,” I reassured my mate.

  “How could you possibly know that?” she asked, her eyes scanning the room to glare at my father and brothers before turning her gaze back to me.

  “None of my dad’s contacts have heard a thing about Annora being in danger,” I tried to explain before she interrupted me.

  “But my dad did, right?”

  “We have no way of knowing whether we can trust the information he was given,” Dad answered. “But I’m still going to call Parker today to let him know what your dad told us.”

  Finley’s back stiffened as she stood angrily before us, facing down four adult male bear shifters without any sign of fear. It surprised me since she had been shy around my family the few times she’d been around them, but there was nothing meek about her right now. I shifted my stance slightly, hoping like hell that it would alleviate the pressure from my cock pressing against my zipper as I watched the heat rise in her face and her eyes light with fury.

  “Really?” she snapped out. “The least you can do is be honest with me. What you meant to say is that you can’t trust the information because it came from my father.”

  “That’s not what I said,” my dad huffed out defensively, even though I damn well knew if the warning had come from someone else, he’d be taking it more seriously.

  “We know what we’re doing, princess,” I said in the hope of defusing the situation. Instead, it had the complete opposite effect. My words only seemed to piss her off more.

  “Yes, I was raised like a princess,” she agreed, rolling her eyes as she spoke. “Do you expect me to be ashamed of that? Because I’m not. When I have children of my own, I’ll pamper them just as much as my parents did me.”

  An image of her belly round with my child filled my head and almost made me miss what she said next. “I know people see me as soft because of how protected I was growing up. My taste in books certainly didn’t help in that regard, either. Maybe not speaking up for myself when I realized what you and your family thought about my daddy made me seem weak to you.”

  “Finley,” I sighed.

  “No!” she yelled, raising one hand to stop me before I could continue. “I’ve kept this bottled up inside for far too long. I probably should have just left when your clan made it clear I was being ‘accepted’ only because you mated me and not because anyone wanted me here. Or when you didn’t put any effort into getting to know me beyond the pleasure you take from my body at night.”

  “You’re more than just a fuck to me, Finley,” I objected. “You’re my mate.”

  “Really? How do I take my coffee? What’s my favorite color? Book? Food?” she rattled off, looking disgusted when I couldn’t answer a single question. “Those are things mates should want to know about each other, Alasdair.”

  “I know the important stuff and I’ll learn the little details as more time passes,” I argued.

  “Okay, then, if you know ‘the important stuff’, how many children do I want? What was my job when we met? How do I spend my days while you’re working?”

  I just stared at her blankly, not knowing how to answer any of those questions.

  “That’s what I thought,” she scoffed. “Letting you get away with being a lousy mate is my fault, but it doesn’t mean I’m weak. I might have gone into this with rose-colored glasses, but they’re gone now. And don’t for one second forget that the blood of an alpha wolf runs through my veins. I may not have had to face many obstacles in the past, but I know I can be as strong when I have to be—no matter what.”

  “You’re part of my clan, Finley,” my dad interrupted our argument, reminding me they were in the room with us. “There will never be a time where you will need to face an obstacle without one of us standing in front of you.”

  The sarcastic chuckle that slipped past her lips was far removed from the joyous giggles that had spilled from her the day we met. I felt the crushing weight of guilt for not protecting Finley the way I should have since bringing her into my home. In the three weeks she’d been my mate, she had lost weight, dark circles marred the skin under her eyes, and the sparkle which had drawn me to her before I realized she was my mate had disappeared. I wanted to defend myself against her harsh words, but she was right. I had been a lousy mate.

  “You guys just don’t get it, do you?” she cried out in frustration. “You’re the obstacle I’m facing right now. You aren’t standing in front of me to protect me from danger, you’re the ones who have been hurting me.”

  “Finley,” I growled in despair as I reached out to pull her into my arms. She backed away from me, flinching, as if she was afraid to have my hands on her. My bear whined, not sure what we’d done to hurt our mate and wanting nothing more than to make her happy again.

  “If my dad called tomorrow and told you I was the one in danger, would you take any measures to ensure my protection?” she asked, leveling us each one-by-one, accusation shining from her eyes. “When you call Parker, how is he supposed to take the information seriously when you aren’t even doing that? She’s your family and you aren’t doing anything to protect her, why should I ever expect you to do better by me?”

  I took a small step toward Finley, but my dad’s hand on my arm stopped me as she took a step closer to the door.

  “I know you love your father,” he said to her. “And it’s hard for you to understand why we don’t trust him. But you know how much Annora suffered while she lived with your pack.”

  “Because he didn’t know!” she yelled. “None of us knew what was happening to her in that house. If we had, my father wouldn’t have hesitated to save her.”

  “Ignorance is no excuse for him not protecting her. It was his duty as her alpha to do better,” Dad argued.

  “If ignorance is no excuse for him, then what’s yours?’ she asked as she marched toward us and pushed me out of the way so she could face off against my dad.

  His eyebrows raised and he tilted his head to the side as he considered her question. “What do you mean?”

  “For starters, you missed how Dair’s been treating me, have
n’t you?” she asked, not waiting for his reply before she continued. “And when you visited our town and found Annora’s mom, you had sex with her. I’m guessing it was unprotected sex since you thought you were going to mate with her. Yet, when she turned you away, you must never have looked back. If you had, you would have known she had a baby.”

  “Hey!” Camden protested, but Finley ignored him, carrying on with her tirade.

  “Your baby,” she hissed. “One you didn’t know about. I could argue just as easily that it was your ignorance that caused her to suffer for so many years because you’re the one who left her to be raised by a wolf who wasn’t even strong enough to make the decision to leave the wrong man for her fated mate.”

  “Finley,” I barked out, dragging her attention back to me. “Are you saying you actually think my father is to blame for what happened to Annora?”

  Her shoulders slumped as all the fight seemed to drain out of her in an instant. “No. What I’m saying is blame and guilt all depend on your perspective. And it’s easier to point the finger at someone else than it is to look inside your heart and admit you made mistakes, too.”

  “He was her alpha,” I tried to explain. “There’s no getting around the fact that your dad was responsible for her safety as a member of his pack.”

  “My daddy isn’t perfect. But neither is yours. And I’m sick and tired of feeling like an outsider because my mate and his family can’t see past my father’s mistakes to understand that they’re making their own right now.”

  “Annora and Kyla are safe,” I assured her, thinking she was talking about the warning her father had passed along to us this morning since it’s what had started the argument in the first place.

  “It’s not just this situation,” she said, waving her arm around the room before walking past me to reach for the door. “I wish it were that easy.”