He sounded as if he wished he did, and she smiled at him, showing him that she appreciated not only the offer, but that he remembered little things about her, things most men would have overlooked.
“I’m not a morning person either,” he grumbled and poured himself a mug of coffee.
She stared at his naked back, trying not to let the sight of all that corded perfection distract her as he moved, causing his muscles to shift and tense, or the fact he wore only a towel slung around his hips, riding low on them to reveal twin dimples above his backside. His shoulders and biceps bunched as he raised the mug to his lips and blew on the contents.
“Is that why you’re going off on a suicide mission? Think this over, Flint, please?” She weathered the growl and the glare he levelled on her. “I know bear shifters. What you’re going to do is crazy. You already kicked the hornets’ nest according to Cobalt… and now you’re proposing to just walk into their territory and pick a fight?”
He shrugged, tossed the towel he had been using to dry his hair onto the dark couch that stood to her left and sipped his coffee as he moved around his cabin. He opened a cupboard beyond the moose, close to a small staircase that led up into the loft, and rifled through it.
“Tell me why you’re doing it,” she whispered and tracked him as he pulled out a large grey t-shirt and a pair of black sweatpants, and dumped them on the arm of the couch at the opposite end to her. “What made you step up?”
He didn’t answer, kept his focus locked away from her as he took another mouthful of the coffee and set it down on the small wooden table at the end of the couch. He grabbed the t-shirt and tugged it on. Jammed his feet into the sweats and pulled them up beneath the towel. He stripped it off and tossed it with the other one.
He moved around the back of the couch, returning to the kitchen to start washing dishes, and the tethers on her temper snapped.
“Will you stop and look at me!” she barked and he froze. Her voice faltered, losing all strength as she stared at him. “Tell me why.”
She closed the gap between them and grabbed his right arm.
He whirled to face her, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.
Hard.
Sensation detonated inside her, blasted through her with such force that she was left shaking and weak as his tongue brushed across her lips.
The will to keep fighting him shattered into a thousand pieces.
She opened for him and moaned as he plundered her mouth, as his grip on her tightened and his body pressed against hers, lighting her up inside. Good gods, this man knew how to kiss. She gripped his hips, fingers pressing in hard as need stirred, a hot ache that pooled in her belly and had her losing herself in him.
He pulled back, breaking the kiss, leaving her dazed and a little confused as to why he had stopped as he clutched her shoulders.
His panted breaths matched hers, his chest heaving with them as he stared down into her eyes, his bright gold with that entrancing band of green around his blown pupils.
“That’s why,” he husked, as breathless as she was.
She told herself not to do it, but the words escaped her, pulled from her lips by a need to challenge him, to make him admit something both of them needed to hear. “Because you think it will get you that one night stand?”
He flexed his strong hands around her arms.
“No,” he bit out, voice scraping low, all gravel and gruffness that lit her up inside all over again as he leaned closer to her, bringing their bodies back into contact that seared her. “Because it might get me more than that. I didn’t realise it before today… but I want more than a night with you… I need more than a night with you, Yasmin.”
He pressed his nose to hers, drew down a deep breath, and rocked her world on its axis as he growled.
“If I have to court you to get it, I’ll court the fuck out of you.”
CHAPTER 10
Flint had officially lost his fucking mind, was swept up in the madness as fiercely as his brothers were, and all he could do was ride the rapids and hope to the gods it landed him where he wanted to be.
He strode barefoot through the woods, his brothers, Ivy and Yasmin, and his three opponents trailing behind him, giving him space he needed as he struggled to clear his mind and focus on the task ahead of him.
One that wasn’t going to be easy.
One that would end with him injured. There was no avoiding that. He had agility to his advantage, but the bear would have brute strength and five-inch claws, and a damned thick hide. He would be lucky to come out of the fight with his life. Coming out of it with injuries he could heal before the next round of the courting would be a fucking miracle.
He had to do it though.
Because now he could see what had his brothers all wound up, falling madly in love.
Now he understood the fever affecting them.
The thought of another male winning Yasmin was unbearable, had him prepared to do anything to secure her and keep them away from her.
So he wouldn’t back down. He wouldn’t sit this one out.
Yasmin had done her damnedest to convince him, swearing to him that she wouldn’t pick a male from among those who reached the end of the courting.
She was going to pick a male when the end came.
Because she was going to pick him.
He was going to prove to her that he was the only male worthy of her.
Even if it killed him.
He stopped at a point where the pines thinned, where he could see smoke curling lazily into the air through them and caught slivers of the cabins that stood in the clearing near another bend in the river. Unlike his pride, the bear shifters lived in the open, their lodges spread around a broad clearing in the forest, visible to all the satellites, planes and helicopters that flew overhead.
Yasmin tensed as he tugged his t-shirt off, but thankfully didn’t say anything. He knew she was afraid for him. He could feel it drumming in his blood, filling his mind with doubt and a need to soothe her by backing down and not going through with it.
He couldn’t obey that need.
He stripped off his sweatpants and looked back at her, the briefest glance, a silent apology, and then stalked forwards.
Into the bear village.
He sucked down subtle but deep breaths as he left the cover of the trees, leaving Yasmin and the others behind as agreed.
Rath wanted to keep them safe, had demanded that everyone would wait at the edge of the woods to watch events unfold, so the bears wouldn’t feel an urge to fight them too. Their territory started at the clearing and extended north. As long as Yasmin and the others remained in the forest, and made no move to challenge them, the bears would leave them alone.
The village was quiet in the late morning sunshine. A vault of blue stretched above him as the sun kissed his bare skin, stretching from the cragged mountains in the distance ahead of him and to his left and right. The clearing was large, at least four times the size of the one at the creek, and the river cut through the middle of it. The log cabins were all different sizes and styles, dotted around the space, and he counted at least a dozen of them.
He pulled down another secret breath to steady his nerves as he scanned the area.
Where the hell were the bears?
He wanted to get this over with before nerves got the better of him.
A door on a cabin to his right, close to the river, opened and a huge bare-chested male packed with muscle stepped out.
Flint stared at him, or more specifically, at the two fresh scars that darted over his left eye, cutting from his forehead to the start of his dark beard.
Fuck.
Of all the damned bears to notice him first, it had to be this son of a bitch.
The male Storm had ended up fighting when the bear had tried to take Gabriella from him.
The nerves he had been struggling to tamp down rose swiftly to choke him but he refused to let the male see it, or those watching him from the trees.
He refused to let Yasmin see it.
But fighting a bear had been a risky enough proposition. Fighting a bear that wanted revenge for what had happened to him, wanted to redeem himself and claw back his pride, was something else.
A suicide mission, as Yasmin had called it.
“Not good,” Cobalt muttered behind him.
“What’s not good?” Yasmin sounded worried, and that note of fear only increased as the bear stepped off his deck and stared Flint down as more bears emerged from their homes to see what was going on. “Do they know each other?”
Rath made a small sound, something like a choked nervous chuckle. “Our brother Storm might have been the one to give him that scar a few weeks back.”
“I might have been the one to chase his ass into the woods.” Cobalt sounded more amused than concerned. “I think payback might be on his mind.”
“You think?” Yasmin bit out and went to move.
Flint glared over his shoulder at her, and then at Rath. Rath seized her arm and held her back, and shook his head when she scowled up at him. Her dark eyes darted back to Flint, her beautiful face crumpling, a hint of despair crossing it as she looked at him.
“I’ll be fine.” He put force into those words, faith he didn’t have, because he didn’t want her getting mixed up in the fight.
Not only because she might be hurt.
If the bears dared to go after her, if they tried to hurt her, he would lose his shit. All rational thought would leave him as his cougar instinct to protect her seized control. It would drive him to fight and keep fighting until he felt she was safe. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself, not even if he was gravely injured. He would keep on fighting. It was a death sentence. One he couldn’t allow to happen.
He swung his gaze back to the bear as the male took another step towards him, giving him all of his attention as he shut the rest of the world out and narrowed his focus down to the male and the fight that was about to happen.
“You’re as ugly as ever… but that new scar does add a little something.” As Storm would have told Flint, them was fighting words. He took a leaf out of his brother’s book of sarcasm and ran with it, holding his ground and fighting his rising nerves as the bear’s eyes darkened with each word that left his lips. “It’s certainly an improvement on how you looked before. I’m sure the other guy bears love it. I hear they dig scars. Is it getting you some action?”
He saw it the moment the bear snapped.
Braced himself as three-hundred-plus pounds of male launched at him on a loud roar.
The shift was quick to come as his instincts fired, warning him of the danger he could clearly see thundering towards him.
It didn’t hurt as his bones lengthened and shrank, contorting into new shapes as golden fur streaked over his skin and white chased down his belly. He growled and sprang left the second all four paws hit the dirt, clearing the spot the male charged through just in time.
Bear grabbed his back leg and slammed him into the dirt. His breath exploded from his lungs as fire swept through him, so fierce that he barely kept hold of his cougar form as his head spun and the world twirled with it.
Damn.
He snarled and twisted, sank fangs into the bastard’s arm and claws into his shoulder and thigh. The male responded as predicted, shifting and giving Flint a mouthful of thick fur. He grew in size, forcing Flint’s front paws apart until he had to release the male or risk being ripped in two.
Flint kicked away from him, gaining space as the other bears gathered to form a semicircle around them, hollering at their friend, giving him pointers and suggestions the bear clearly didn’t appreciate because he turned and growled at them all as he sank to all fours.
The male slowly swung to face him again, his lower lip hanging down, exposing long sharp teeth that Flint bet the bastard was fantasising about sinking into him. At least he hoped that was the reason the male was drooling, a thick sticky strand of it slowly stretching from the centre of his lip, and he hadn’t been right about which way the male swung and the bear wasn’t fantasising about getting himself a piece of cougar ass.
He tuned into the male, honing his focus on him, and eased to his right. The male circled with him, his eyes never straying from him. Flint assessed him. He was bigger than the bear that he and Rath had tackled when they had come to Storm’s aid, and his hackles were up.
Every instinct Flint possessed said that this male wanted vengeance, hungered to take him down and make him run, ached to claw back his good name within his pride. It must have stung the two bears to be driven away by only four cougars.
Even with two cougars on one bear, it was hardly a competition.
The bear had a good hundred-and-fifty pounds on the weight of him and one of his brothers combined.
Plus, with the bear’s thick fur and skin, broad neck and dense fat layer, it was hard to get a grip on the male’s throat in order to bring him down.
Which was exactly what Flint needed to do in order to end this fight.
If he could seize the male’s throat, it would be over. The male would submit, wouldn’t risk getting himself killed just to redeem himself.
The trouble was, in all of Flint’s fights against bears, he had never managed to get his jaws clamped around their throat.
They normally ended up slamming a paw into his and pinning him to the ground with it, choking him until he was forced to shift back and play dead, surrendering to them.
That wasn’t going to happen today. If he didn’t defeat this bear and drive him into submission, he would lose his dare, and he would lose all the benefits of being the leading contender in the courting. Being top cougar would give him a head start on certain events if he chose it.
He was going to need that head start on the mountain climb after this fight. His injuries would slow him down.
Flint flicked his rounded ears back and hissed at the bear, trying to goad him into reacting. If he could rile the bear enough, the male might do something stupid, giving him an opening he could take. Bear had a good three hundred pounds on him, looked like at least five hundred pounds to his modest two hundred. Provoking him was the most sensible course of action, although it didn’t paint him in the greatest light for Yasmin.
He didn’t want to look like a pussy, but getting himself killed probably wouldn’t impress her either.
So he hissed again, flattening his ears and baring his fangs.
Bear lowered his head and swayed restlessly, a low moaning growl his response.
This was one bear not rising to the bait.
Flint lunged forwards and swiped with his right paw as he hissed this time, and arched his back as he turned side on to him and eased away when the bear lifted his head and roared, baring huge canines. Flint growled and puffed his fur up, hoping to make himself look bigger so the bear would view him as more of a threat.
When the male lowered his head again, Flint hissed and swiped, batting his right paw forwards twice this time, closing the distance between them down to only a couple of metres.
Bear regarded him coolly, dark brown eyes bright and focused. He was waiting too.
Waiting for Flint to fuck up.
Wasn’t going to happen.
He circled the male, resisting looking at Yasmin as she came into view, and trying to ignore the fact there were now at least a dozen males stood behind him, none of them friendly. If any of them dared to pull his tail, he was going to rip their throat out before they could shift.
He grinned inside as an idea formed.
There was a way he could get his jaws around the male’s throat.
But it involved hurting the male enough that he was forced to shift back, which meant a brawl, a serious one.
Which meant the bear could easily do the same to him. There was only so much pain he could take before he would lose his grip on his cougar form.
Someone moved beyond the brute.
Flint made the mistake of glancing there.
Bear was on him in a heartbeat, five hundred pounds of pure muscle crushing his ribs as the male smashed a paw into his side and drove him into the dirt. Flint growled and hissed as he lashed out with his back paws, twisting his body so he could reach the male’s most sensitive part, one he would back off in order to protect—his face.
The moment his paws came within striking distance, the bear rose onto his back feet on a moan to tower over him.
Flint scrambled and sprang to his paws just as the bear came down, landing with a hard thud where he had been. He snarled and leaped on the bear’s back, scrabbled for purchase as the male swung to his right in an attempt to shake him, and managed to get his claws through his dense brown fur and into his skin.
The bear growled and rose onto his back paws again, standing bolt upright, so Flint was forced to climb the bastard to avoid being shaken.
When the male twisted, Flint rolled right, clung for dear life to the bear and tried to ride him. The brute bucked though, twisted and shook and went to roll. Flint kicked off him, landing on all fours in a crouch close to him. The bear swung his head his way and roared, the sound deafening as it blasted his ears.
Flint growled right back at him and leaped, aiming for the bear’s back.
The male rose onto his back paws and Flint twisted in the air, trying to avoid a collision. Too late. The bear raked claws down his back as he tried to get away, and Flint hissed and grunted as the bear followed through with his huge paw and drove him into the dirt with enough speed to knock the air from his lungs.
Before the bear could come down on him again, he shuffled backwards, under the male. As predicted, the brute came down where Flint had been, leaving him wide open. Flint leaped on his back again and swiftly sank claws into his flesh, growled as he raked them down to give the bear a little payback. The scent of his blood thickened the air together with Flint’s as it trickled over his back, tickling his golden fur.
Bear shook him off and lumbered away, gaining space.
Or at least, Flint thought he had been doing it to gain space.
He looked in the direction the bear was going.
Courted by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 3) Page 9
