by Haley Weir
Destiny’s eyes shot open, but she didn’t dare move from her position. Ears straining to hear, she felt her heart skip a beat when a moan followed the sound of Brock’s palm slamming against the tiled wall of the shower. The images that played in her mind of his knees buckling while he pleasured himself caused sweat to bead on her forehead. Another moan and then Destiny heard him shout her name before the room went silent. The shower turned off and she wasn’t sure she was ready to face him.
“Don’t! Don’t touch me!”
The memory of the words he barked the first day they met officially caused her to jerk up from the bed for a moment. She remembered looking on as he dropped to the floor and curled up into a ball like he was ashamed of the scars on his body. Destiny realized then that Brock had purposely put himself in a vulnerable position, giving her a chance to reject him if she wanted.
Instead of feeling powerful, she felt nauseated. Every muscle in her body twitched, telling her to run for the door, but her mind wouldn’t let her. Leaving would only hurt him worse, but she didn’t want to be the object of his pain, someone he looked to to be ridiculed for something he hadn’t been able to control. Destiny resumed her position just when the door swung open all the way. He stood in the doorway with a towel around his waist, silhouetted by the light in the bathroom.
She looked everywhere except for the scars on his chest. Brock shook his head and trailed a hand down his abdomen. “Look,” he ordered. “I need you to look and know that no scar you carry and no burden you bear will ever make you anything less than perfect in my eyes. If you can learn to love someone as flawed as I am, then you can learn to love yourself.”
“But it hurts you; it forces you to remember.”
“You make me strong,” Brock said. “That day in the bookshop, the wounds were still so fresh in my mind that I couldn’t stand the thought of someone touching me. But it was the love and tenderness in which you touched me with that broke through the darkness and allowed me into the light.”
Destiny took a deep breath and allowed herself to relax into the mattress. She closed her eyes to gather her composure before looking him over from head to toe. In her mind, the scars only added to his beauty despite the horrors that caused them. They were a sign of his strength. He had survived more pain that most people could ever imagine. “Please kiss me,” she begged.
Brock dropped the towel and her gaze dropped with it to the engorged flesh of his masculinity. Even only half erect, Brock was much larger than any man she had been intimate with. Destiny felt her womb clench and wondered for a moment if he would fit. Her mate sensed her trepidation and crawled onto the bed with a smile.
He tapped her knee in a silent command to open her legs before laying his body on top of hers. Brock’s lips brushed Destiny’s as his fingers stroked between her thighs. “You’re already dripping for me. Don’t worry, my Queen. With patience and preparation, you’ll accept me just fine.” He brought his fingers to his lips and sucked each digit obscenely. “So sweet...just like I knew you would be.”
The swatch of hair on his chest trailed down toward the trimmed curls on his pelvis. Destiny wanted to rake her nails down his chest and lick him all over. The raw sensuality that rolled off of him in waves was unlike anything she had ever experienced. And when he finally claimed her mouth with his own, she tasted herself on his tongue and wondered what wicked things he had in store. The sheer mass of his body covered her from head to toe, making Destiny feel petite.
Brock’s lips kissed down her neck. His knees forced her legs wider as he moved lower. He traced her navel with the tip of his tongue before licking back up her chest to claim her mouth in a filthy kiss that she felt in every one of her nerves. Each caress caused her skin to tingle. “More.”
A sharp smack to her thigh caused Destiny to moan, more firm than painful, but enough to catch her attention. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, mortified that she had made such a pitiful noise. Brock clicked his tongue in warning again as she tried to hide her face in the pillow beside her head. “Never hold back, Destiny.”
“I need more…”
“Then ask for it, sweetheart,” he growled. “Take that bite out of your tone. I don’t respond well to commands.”
“Please, my King. I need more.”
“Show me,” Brock demanded. He pulled one hand from the headboard and kissed her knuckles. “Show me what you need.” His eyes seared her to the bone as she led his hand to her most intimate place. Brock licked his lips suggestively, making her squirm. With a firm nod, he forced her to grip the headboard once more. “Hold on tight.”
“Basilisk.” She bit his bottom lip and then licked away the sting.
Brock used his free hand to grip her waist. “Hold on tight,” he warned before using his enhanced strength to lift her and slammed her back against the tree. His hand tightened around her throat and Brock kissed the corner of her mouth to taste her moan.
“You’re remembering that day in the park, aren’t you?” Brock in the present asked. The phantom images faded until there was only the two of them. He breathed warm air against her folds as he back arched off of the bed. “Any other time I would be flattered, but I want you here with me, my Queen. Alright?”
“Yes, my King.” Destiny was overcome by sensation as Brock tasted her for the first time. She nearly screamed out in ecstasy as tension coiled in her muscles. He kissed, sucked, and stroked her flesh until her thighs quaked. Brock roared and smacked her rear, leaving behind a red handprint. Destiny gasped, eyes tearing up as she wordlessly pleaded for her release. The sight of him between her legs was too much.
“You don’t come until I tell you to.”
“I...I can’t…”
“Let me take care of you.”
Destiny felt lubed fingers begin to prepare her body for his claim. She watched him work, his eyes never leaving her face. Nothing else mattered in the world except the places where their bodies connected. Brock kissed the inside of her thigh as his fingers caressed the place deep inside of her body that made her eyes roll into the back of her head. In one fluid motion, he eclipsed her body and claimed her.
The thrust was so powerful that her shoulders shifted up the bed. Brock paused. It was her turn to watch his face as her chanel clenched around him. He rocked into her, lifting her hips into his lap, brow pinched in concentration. Destiny’s body adjusted to his intrusion as if it was made for him...and she reckoned that it had been. Brock’s thoughts must have been in synch with hers, for his hand flattened over the pale bear paw that marked her as his mate.
His body shuddered as his thrusts picked up pace. Destiny gripped the headboard and stared into Brock’s eyes. “Please,” she sobbed, throat raw from moaning. His thrusts became brutal, hitting the places no one else had ever hit. Tears streamed down the corners of her eyes and wet the pillow as Brock’s hips stilled.
“Come.” Her body shattered, her soul ripped to shreds, and snapped back together like an elastic band. Brock held her through the aftershocks. Pulling her against his chest and made love to her through the haze of her orgasm. She felt his release soothe the ache in her womb. Destiny wrapped her arms around his neck and he swallowed her whimper.
Their bodies communicated in some sort of secret language. Brock rode out his own orgasm as he pulled away from her mouth to sink his teeth into her shoulder, making her and claiming her on a soul-deep level. The sounds that escaped her mate caused Destiny’s body to convulse once more. She screamed as another round of shocks streamed through her veins. “Brock!”
“Shh,” he cooed. “I’ve got you, sweetheart. Let go. I’ll catch you, I promise.”
It took nearly five minutes for Destiny to settle down. Brock lifted her from the bed and carried her to the shower where he washed away the evidence of their love making. Destiny couldn’t remember the last time she felt so relaxed.
Chapter Twelve
“Why collect them for experimentation if they are—if we are so dangerous? Why not
just exterminate every last one?” Michael asked.
Corey rolled over on the bed and clutched the pillow to his chest. His mind wouldn’t let him sleep peacefully. The only reprieve he had in the dark was the absence of his memories of Sector A.
“If it were my choice, that is exactly what I would do. However, you freaks are harder to track down than you might think. Bears and jaguars are the hardest to track. They’re less likely to roam in packs and tend to dwell in remote areas like this.” Corey looked at Michael curiously. “You don’t seem as ignorant about these things as the others are. Perhaps I underestimated you.”
The arrogance in his words now filled him with dread. Michael Adair could have killed him in the forest the first time they met or that afternoon in his office at the Kodiak Dating Agency. Corey felt his body flail around the bed, but was unable to open his eyes. Shadows swirled in his mind, only breaking to reveal the eyes of the shifter he once thought of as an enemy.
“My friends like to think of themselves as men who can turn into beasts. I guess I agree with you in the sense that I, for one, consider myself a beast that wears the face of a man. We are freaks, abominations, and hiccups in the natural order. There’s no doubt about that,” Michael explained. “I made peace with it long ago. And if you think that this suit or this building would keep me contained if you laid one finger on my brother, then you are sorely mistaken. Brock is off limits—”
While Corey now respected the power and control that Michael Adair possessed, he had been too cocky to realize just what the man had been trying to tell him all along. It was a common belief among the bears of Haden Springs that man and shifter could live in peace so long as there were laws put in place, a system that could police those who didn’t have a place in society, the “hiccups in the natural order.”
“You’re too controlled to rampage. I’ve never met a shifter like you, one that can blur the lines so delicately. I saw you in the forest. You had all of the strength of your bear -the claws, the fury, and the instinct. But you were present—Michael Adair was still in control of the animal,” Corey uttered. “Miraculous. And something I’m sure my employer will be very happy to hear.”
If he had never captured and delivered Brock Wasting to Hydra, he would have swept through Haden Springs like an angry storm and destroyed everything. The plan had been to trigger the rampage in the bears, to break the trustful bond they had created with the townspeople and force them beneath Hydra’s control. But there was something about the bears and their mates that caused Corey and his old team to question their orders.
Corey wasn’t able to break free from the eerie thoughts that crippled him until someone knocked on the newly repaired front door. He sat up in the blink of an eye and reached beneath the pillow to wrap his fingers around his pistol. Corey slid soundlessly through the hallway with his gun by his side. He peeked through the peephole.
Michael Adair himself stared defiantly at the door as though he could see through it. Corey unlatched the lock and allowed the eldest of the Haden Springs bears to enter. His heightened senses instantly alerted him that another predator was nearby. “What brings you here?” Corey asked.
“You aren’t surprised to see me.”
“No,” he replied simply. “Even though Brock tried his best to clean this place up, your scent still clings to this apartment. Honestly, it’s driving me insane smelling your musty pelt each time I walk into my bedroom.”
“Could say the same about you. Everyone complains about the smell of wet dog, but no one says anything about a dying cat smell that you jaguars seem to have.”
“How long have you known?” Corey snapped.
“You aren’t the only one with powerful connections, Reed.”
“Actually, it’s Collier.”
“I know,” Michael said with a cocky swagger as he walked deeper into the house. “Where’s your sister at this time of night?”
“Probably with your brother.”
Michael snorted and hung his head in exasperation. “My agency has been receiving quite an influx in what I’m calling ‘mate matches’ at the moment. It seems like Kodiak Dating Agency has a talent for pairing shifters with their mates. My brother is just one of the many who have found love with my services.”
“Did Anders and Dorian find their mates through you as well?”
“They did,” the bear confirmed. “Which is why I’m here to offer you the same thing. If we’re to fight Hydra and win, I need you at full strength.”
“Are you referring to your ‘mates are the key to unlocking our next step in evolution’ theory Brock told me about?”
“It is. Corey, we need to take down your father’s facility once and for all. Those shifters deserve peace. Even if we have to put the rabid ones down, it’s better than living a life confined in the place of their nightmares.”
Corey paced across the living room floor, brushing his hand over his buzzed hair. “He has an army of mercenaries. The ones you fought aren’t even a third of his numbers. There are hundreds—if not thousands—of men and women on his payroll.”
“That’s why I need your help.”
“I’m useless in the state I’m in, Michael.”
“Then I’ll train you,” the bear said with a shrug.
***
The following morning, Destiny blinked open her eyes and rolled over to face her mate. Brock slept peacefully beside her, eyes flickering back and forth behind his lids as she observed his serene expression. The fire died sometime in the night and the candles burned down to the stumps not long after, but the natural light streaming in through the dusty windows lit his face in a way that made her heart clench.
Destiny wondered how should could tell Brock about her deepest fears. Now that she had submitted to him, there was very little that she was uncomfortable sharing, but the secret she kept might end them as a couple. She ran her fingers through his hair and marveled at how quickly the beard on his chin thickened. Somehow the facial hair made him look more put together than when he was cleanly shaven.
Her phone began to vibrate on the floor where Brock had tossed it the night before. Destiny tried to stand, but the muscles in her legs protested the sudden movement, sending her to the floor with a quiet grunt. She crawled over the phone and saw a message from The Ladies In Waiting Book Club group chat.
Instead of waking Brock, Destiny pulled his shirt on and kissed his cheek before sneaking out as quietly as possible. Once the feeling returned to her limbs, she made her way down the street. Thankfully, no one was awake at such an ungodly hour, so she survived the walk of shame home. When she unlocked the door, Destiny was surprised to see Brock’s brother Michael. “Oh! Hello.”
“Miss Collier, I was just on my way out. It’s a pleasure to see you again.”
“Wait.” Destiny grabbed his arm before he could pass her through the door. “Please...there’s something I could really use your advice on.”
Michael hesitated, but he gestured to her couch. Destiny took a seat, feeling a little self-conscious about her lack of clothing. He sat beside her and asked, “What can I do for you?” The sincerity in his eyes contradicted every rumor she had heard of his arrogance and selfish behavior.
“I’m sort of known for being afraid of...pretty much everything that isn’t a monster.” The irony of her confession didn’t go unnoticed by Michael or Corey. “But my greatest fear is fire. When I was in the psych ward, there was a grease fire that burned half of the hospital to the ground. I was nearly caught in the blaze, but I threw myself out the window before it could consume my room.” She pointed to a surgical scar on her calf and several light scars on the right side of her ribcage. “They sewed me back up, but sometimes I still have terrible flashbacks of what happened. It’s why I couldn’t bring myself to visit Sapphire while she was in a coma and why I haven’t helped with the effort to prevent forest fires. Being anywhere near fire sends me into a panic attack.”
“I understand.” Destiny stood up and smoothed d
own the fabric of her dress. “But just so you know, everyone has scars. And I’m the last person in the world who would pass judgment.”
Fingers snapped in front of her face and Destiny was pulled from the memory like a bucket of cold water had been tossed over her head. “Yes?”
“You drifted off there,” Corey said.
Michael’s face was as impassive as ever. “Have you talked about this fear with Brock? He’s a firefighter. He should know that you have a problem with his profession.”
“It’s not his profession that I have a problem with, it’s the fire.”
“They go hand in hand, Miss Collier.”
“Destiny,” she corrected. “Call me Destiny.”
Michael’s head bobbed, but his formality did not falter. “Even so, you have to tell him. It could come between you.”
“That’s the thing: I don’t know how to tell him. The last thing I want to do is make him feel obligated to give up something he loves. He just went back to work, I don’t want to ruin everything for him. I thought I could handle it…”
“But that was before you slept with him,” Michael finished. “Now your heart is more invested than ever and you’re afraid of losing him.”
Destiny burst into tears and covered her mouth to smother the sobbs that tore through her. “He was almost killed in a fire before he was taken to Sector A. Brock might not be lucky next time. Corey wasn’t the only one setting the fires, there are Hydra soldiers all over the mountain now.”
“And Logan is still out there,” her brother added.
Michael folded his hands in his lap, looking off into the unforeseen distance. “Talk to my brother. He might be upset for a little while, but I’d like to think he isn’t stupid enough to let you go.”
