“Don't worry. I'm done taking any help from him. Ever. Not after the way he attacked you.”
God, how had I been so stupid? I sniffed away the tears prodding to the surface.
If it wasn't for my hissy fit and flight through the woods, he wouldn't have come after me. He wouldn't have had to chase away the Elder. Wouldn't have received these cuts and put his life in peril.
“Ah, fuck!” Don snorted, grabbing my arm tight when I brought the cotton swab to a long cut on his stomach. I'd marinated it in alcohol to clean out any germs.
“Hold still. We're almost done.” Helping him made me feel a little better.
Not that using my best bedside manner on such a beautiful man was a chore. I rubbed the wound and then applied another strip of gauze. I was lucky he had anything here. It had certainly been years since he'd gotten any modern medical supplies from Kalispell.
“Is this really necessary?” He asked, wafting warm breath against my face as I lined up the last of the bandages. “Shifters have better immune systems, you know.”
“Why take any chances? You're a tough guy. Don't tell me you can't take a little antiseptic sting after having a crazy bear rip into you?”
“He really is a crazy asshole.” Don paused, drawing in a deep breath as I dressed one last cut. “What was he doing out there with you? So close to our borders?”
I shrugged. His guess was as good as mine.
The run in with Emmerick was nothing short of strange. Before, I hadn't had time to ruminate on the Elder's sudden appearance in the foggy darkness. But when I finally did, I shuddered.
Only a few possibilities. Shit, if I'd followed him, would I have gotten back to Kalispell at all?
He could've easily killed me out there. Maybe he intended to. Don saved my life.
New opalescent liquid splashed his chest, this time not water or rubbing alcohol. My tears – helpless, damnable, uncontrollable tears rained from my eyes.
“Come here,” Don whispered, wrapping his hands around my back.
He sat on the edge of the bathtub, and before I knew it I was on his lap, bawling my eyes out. “This is my fault. You still love me and I should just accept that, even if we can't have all our desires. I can deal with that.”
“No, you were right before,” Don said softly. He waited until my sad spasms stopped and I looked up. “We don't know where Franklin got this information. He said Clara – my mother – died because she mated with a shifter. Claimed some kind of fever sweeps away every human woman who has a shifter's baby.”
“That doesn't make any sense,” I said. “And even if it's true...isn't it too late for me?”
“It's never too late!” He snapped. Don tugged me closer, his hands gliding down my back, comforting and hard as twin slabs. “You're not pregnant. I won't be responsible for hurting you, Sam. I'd kill myself before that happened.”
“But Franklin didn't tell you, didn't explain how baby making alone could do this? Just having sex is probably enough to pass on whatever it is – if there's a whatever at all.”
I watched his jaw clench and pop beneath his stubble. He knew I had a certain logic, and he hated it. I hated it too.
“I won't try to run away again. Not unless the Elders tell me I can go home and you come with me. Can't we forget this craziness and just go back to the way things were?”
He looked at me in silence. More than a dozen seconds ticked by, feeding a pregnant pause swollen with a thousand enticing possibilities. I saw several futures unfolding for us in his eyes.
Every one of them made me smile. Oh, I wanted them – needed them! I didn't care if they were the riskiest thing in the world.
“It's not that simple,” he rasped sadly, bringing his lips to mine. His kiss lingered, its fury returning, warming the chill inside him. “Or is it?”
Yes! We can take our love by the minute. I'm ready for the danger, the beauty. Everything.
I swallowed his heat, letting it roll down my throat and explode in my belly like a shot of warm bourbon. Except this was much better. No bourbon had love's fire brewed into its makeup.
Our lips kissed furiously, hungry and lapping. They were starved, and now our flesh intended to make up its loneliness, the fearful near loss of our love.
He grunted against me. His hands slid to my jeans and stopped, then spread into thick, meandering meshes for my buttocks. His fingers pressed hard along my round surface and squeezed.
“Ahhh! I'm glad you missed me as much as I missed you.” I purred, breaking the exhausting kiss and moving my lips beneath his ear, tasting the outline of his rugged, electric stubble.
“Yes. And we're going to forget all this now,” he said, hooking one hand beneath my knees and lifting me up with him. I snuggled in his arms.
“Just two conditions.” Don's voice simmered lower as he carried me out of the bathroom, heading for the only place that made sense. “We don't give up on our research. We have to get rid of Emmerick and we need to find out if the baby problem is true. If it is, then I won't rest until I find some way to help you.”
“Of course. There's got to be some medicine. Science has changed since the seventies when your mom died.” I smiled, inhaling his heavenly musk as he carried me into the bedroom. “And what's the other thing?”
“I get to spank that beautiful ass. You've been a naughty, disobedient girl, and I don't care how lovely you are. I'm going to punish you, Sam.”
Oh. My. God!
Blood rushed into my face, swelling my skin. It boiled, rolling a hundred other places in my body, making the tissue tingle with forbidden excitement.
No man had ever given me such a sudden, shocking demand. But it was just the hundredth reminder that I wasn't dealing with an ordinary man, but a creature who was part beast, part man, and likely part god.
Don threw me onto the bed. I kicked my legs and yipped, feeling the stark current zipping through my system, electricity that wouldn't stop building until I felt his touch on my bare flesh.
Hard, soft, sharp, slick...any way you want to touch me is fine, dear sir. Pleasure and punishment are both gifts when they're coming from you.
Don fell upon me, flipped me on my stomach, and began tearing at my clothes. I already felt his bulge pressing between my buttocks before he took down my jeans.
He rolled away my shirt, popped my bra. His hands moved swiftly beneath me, stopping to cup, squeeze, and roll my bare breasts.
I arched my back into him and moaned. I feared I'd never feel those fingers on my nipples again, pinching and plucking, guiding them to plush, rosy softness.
“Do you believe in fate, Sam?” Another firm roll of his thumbs and fingertips against my nipples underscored the fiery question. “Because I do.”
“I – ah! – think so.”
Do you really? In his elegant touch, it's hard to think about much of anything!
“You came to me once as a pure fluke. And yet you keep coming back. Again and again. Sure, I've got a superior sense of smell, but what were the odds of finding you when I needed to in that misty forest?”
I hissed through my teeth as his hands dropped. Don spread both hands and curled them across my sides, fusing them back together at my belt.
“I don't know about that.” I twisted my hips impatiently.
I wasn't in the mood for a gentle interrogation. I wanted him on me and in me, all over me, running his rough hands across my body.
“I think you know more than you let on.” Suddenly, one hand darted up to my hair. He grabbed my locks and pulled, shuttling my ear to his lips. “We're meant to be together, Sam. In my world, we have a thing called fated mates. And I knew from the moment I saw you that you were mine.”
I was too shocked to answer. Doubly senseless when he lowered his lips to my neck, kissed me deep, and then broke the kiss in a harsh sucking love bite.
Heat flooded me. My knees trembled. It wasn't enough to say I was wet. I was drenched with decadent anticipation, every square inch of my depth
s famished for his flesh to fill me again.
Fated mates? Maybe. Just as long as you never stop fucking me.
Don growled as he finished unclasping my jeans. He tore them to my legs, and took my panties with them. His hand moved away from my hair, went to the small of my back, pushed me forward onto the bed.
“Now, about that spanking...” Don's growl faded to a low roil, dark and sexy as hell.
I laid waiting there for less than a second.
His hand sizzled through the air and connected with my little ass. I jerked forward, screaming with surprise. New flames exploded inside me at the grim spark his impact sent through my system.
And he was just getting started too. Don raised his flat palm and brought it to my waiting ass again and again, stopping just long enough for me to feel each blow.
What the hell is this? It doesn't hurt like I expected.
On the contrary, my toes curled and my sex heated another ten degrees whenever his hand met my ass. I'd never been much into kink, but I was beginning to see very fast why a lot of women were into this.
Shit. And now I'm one of them!
His tenth spank confirmed that. I thrashed beneath him as his huge body pinned me down, rubbing my delicate thighs together.
Slickness dribbled down the center. My wetness betrayed me, a thin chain of honey escaping its swollen cup, pouring like rich oil warmed in a foundry.
“Your heart's sorry,” Don said, pausing to bring his hard face next to mine. “But what about your body? Is your flesh going to repent too? Repent and submit?”
A wicked rhyme – but not half as mad as his touch.
“I don't know what that means!” I lifted my head, eyes still rolling. “You can hit me again, if you like. Or just fuck me.”
He moved his burning lips to my shoulder instead. His mouth opened, and he bit me harder, leaving a firm mark in my flesh.
He'd left at least three hickeys with his mouth, and I was sure there would be a lot more by the time the night was through. And that wasn't even considering how long the harsh red marks would stay on my ass...
I almost died. Don's mouth, his hands, his muscles moved around me, sweeping me back toward him like an angry ocean capturing me in its wave.
Just hit me, you beautiful bastard. Bite me. Fuck me.
Feverish heat shot high. My ass was still sizzling as he withdrew his hand on the last slap. Then his fingers pursed together, curling up my thigh, trailing through the slickness seeping out of me.
They moved in. I gasped as two stiff fingers pushed inside me, wonderful man and muscle. He quickly rubbed my silky, wet walls, starting new fires that leaped up my back.
My knees buckled. I collapsed toward the bed, and Don's free hand went for my neck.
He held me down, just as his other thumb found my clit. Mad, mad circles swept through my folds, haughty vibrations intent on making me come hard and fast.
“Don't stop!” I panted. His strokes slowed.
I knew he was keeping me on the edge intentionally. And hell, if he teased me for too long, I might become like an animal myself; a yowling, spitting wildcat in heat.
Heat!
“Then give it up to me, Sammy. All of it. Tell me this sweet cunt belongs to me from now, just like your heart. Only to me.”
I started to tremble. My mouth fell open and a long, shrill gasp escaped my lips, unable to take the agonizingly slow, hard flicks of his thumb against my needy clit.
The firestorm deepened. I had to let it out before it burned to the ground!
I moaned. Don bent down, pouring his hot breath in my ear, like fire trying to form words.
“Tell me!” He yanked on my hair.
“I'm yours! Please, I'll do anything. Just let me come already, lover.” I gnawed my lip, and decided one more word fit perfectly. “Mate.”
Don's hands moved again. His fingers circulated wildly, reared up deep inside me, jostled like something wonderfully mechanical, but warm against my clit.
I came hard, gushing all over his hands. His fingers moved steady, brutal, and beautiful inside me, all over me.
My brain hallucinated more of those fingers sauntering across my flesh, stroking my whole body into a screaming orgasm. And scream, I did.
My howls echoed on the walls, filling his lonely cabin with soprano delight. My lungs itched for air, but I was too stunned to breath.
In his unceasing hands, I just kept coming, on and on, until my muscles wouldn't work anymore.
I fell flat on my face like a ragdoll when it was all over.
“You came beautiful, Sam. You came for me. Now, I know you've fully repented for what you did.”
I smiled, but didn't have much time to process the soft words as his hands moved to my skin again. In a flash, he'd flipped me over, bringing me to the bed's center and working his way between my legs.
Flat on my back, I got a wonderful strip show. I'd seen him naked more times than most men, but something about revealing his body always made me want like nothing else.
I watched him peel his shirt off, hurl it on the floor, and then do the same with his pants and boxers. He kicked them behind him, moving in with predatory energy, folding his swollen cock against my waiting lower lips.
“Fuck me without holding back this time,” he ordered. “Scream. Scratch. Rise up and lick my flesh. I want you to come your brains out and suck every drop of seed away from my balls. I will come inside you, Sam. Now and always.”
Always.
He pushed inside me. My arms and legs wrapped around him, shuddering with early ecstasy, all the empty spaces in me drooling for his fulfilling touch.
Always.
Don's hips pistoned forward, pulled back, stretching my tight sex to conform to his length, his steel. My hips pushed back, swallowing him whole, wishing I could keep him inside me forever. Wood and springs creaked darkly beneath us, so shrill I thought we'd break the bed.
Always.
Feral, bear-like growls left his lips long before he came. His thrusts came faster, harder, needier, hellbent on marking me from the inside-out. My clit burned when his neat pubic hair grated against it.
The friction was too much. I came, locking my feet around his legs like a vice.
My taut pressure encouraged him, and he hunted me through my earth shattering pleasure. I saw the bear inside him rippling beneath his skin, a beastly halo around a man's soul, but mostly just the silhouettes of both carved in pure primal fire.
Always!
Don's grunt became a guttural scream. He punched through my spasms, held himself deep against my womb, and came.
His essence shot into me, hot like burning stars filling my fertile darkness. His erection twitched, throbbed, and sputtered against my walls, hurling his seed deeper.
I lost it. The already insane orgasm became a complete frenzy of sweaty, clawing, nerve rupturing bliss.
Networks beneath my flesh roasted like a rolling forest fire. Only the steady rumble in his throat cut through my screams, relentless and unstoppable as a force of nature.
We came together, hearts and bodies surrendering everything they had, before falling away from their crescendo, into a fuzzy afterglow.
Later, I lay against his comforting flesh, breathing our combined fragrance. It was sharp, but sweet and calming too.
“Tell me more about fated mates,” I said softly, kissing at his bicep.
“It's what shifter parents tell their children about love. Even before they know about the birds and the bees, they understand a man and a woman are meant to be together.” He paused. “I think I know why you're looking at me like that.”
“It just seems too...strange. Sounds like romantic magic compared to everything my world says about love.” I smiled. “But you're starting to convince me otherwise.”
“Starting? No, Sam. You are my fated mate. What's just happened tonight must have convinced you of that.”
I laughed, too shy to tell him he was exactly right. Until Don Flood came i
nto my life, I hadn't fallen head over heels for anyone, hadn't loved Ryan the way I loved my man-bear.
“You're mine forever. It's written in the stars and on your skin.” His arm tightened around me as he spoke. “A human's senses don't know when they find the one they're meant to be with. But a shifter's do. We see, smell, taste, and touch better than your kind – and that means hearts too.”
An overwhelming shudder flicked up my spine. I buried my face in the heavenly nook between his neck and shoulder.
If I wasn't built to love like him, then at least I could show him my appreciation in other ways. I brought my lips to Don's and reached down for his stiffening hardness.
Ready – no, eager – to be one with him again. Now and always.
VIII: Intrusions (Don)
I believed in fated mates, but not in perfect happiness. But hell, I never knew how wrong I could be.
Several weeks floated by, an oasis of pure bliss carved by our hearts. Sam laughed, loved, and mated with me everyday.
My ideal companion. My dearest possession. My forever.
Finally, I held every part of her in my grasp, and gave her myself in ways I never imagined. I wondered how long this paradise would last, anxious it would fall just as mysteriously as it had been created.
Harvest Night came as autumn gave way to winter. I brought Sam out with me on our holiest night, and it was the first time the entire clan saw her.
Several shifter men and women sniffed the air curiously. I knew they were intrigued by the scent of a fully human female, but my own pheromones betrayed me too.
Alex, Rufus, Matthias, Franklin, Sapphire...all the bears I knew best smelled my love. They smelled it, and gossiped behind my back, fueling the Elders' unease.
“Tonight, we give ourselves to the moon, remembering what we are,” Genevieve said on her little platform, standing in an open clearing beneath the ivory light. “We are unique, a clan and a people divided from men. Nothing better illustrates our uniqueness than tonight, with a human among us, a creature who has no beast stirring within her bones.”
Sam's little hand tightened in mine. I gave her a reassuring nod. So far, she'd tolerated the holiday rites well, even if she was surrounded by nearly three dozen strangers who could turn into huge bears at a moment's notice.
Love to Bear: A Werebear Shifter Romance Page 10
