I wasn't just comfortable with this sweet bear. I was ready to give it up, surrender what he wanted, my virginity and my heart.
It didn't matter what Daddy thought or how terrible the tigers would be when they found out. Our bodies betrayed us, turning away from our own people and to the flesh instead.
But Gods! Just now, betrayal felt damned good, and there was no double crossing the raw need surging in our bodies.
He found my clit, hooked his fingers around it, and began drawing circles. I knew he could move harder and faster than he was, but he wanted me to move with him, jerking myself around and around his sweet fingers.
“Come for me, little tiger. Give my cock something to stay hard while it's waiting to get deep inside you...”
Gods! The filthy mouth on this man...
I lost it. My spine tensed and I curled into him. If he hadn't been there for me, I would've went crashing down into the shower, but he held me with all his strength, tripling the frantic circles around my clit.
In the hot, wet, firm friction, I came. Hard.
My tiger found her release with me. All the pain and uncertainty and fear of the last few days came surging out in a ferocious growl. Shrill passion spilled out my throat as the spasms came, dense waves burying me in pure, blinding pleasure.
He gingerly stroked me back to life. I opened my eyes, feeling the gentle water on my head.
Everything below my waist was mush, but I felt his hands on my torso, soaping up a nice lather.
When he saw I recognized the rinse, he brought his lips to my forehead and kissed me hot, leaving his impression.
“You came beautiful, baby. That's just the beginning. I won't be fucking satisfied until I hear you growling in my ear over and over and–“
“Are we finished here?” I hissed, pushing myself deeper into the water to wash away the soap.
“There's a better place to do this.”
I turned around to face him, matching his broad grin with my own smile.
“Greedy tiger,” he growled. “Good thing I like greedy.”
With another strong pull of his arms, he lifted me up. We stopped briefly on the tile to towel off, and then he lead me upstairs, past the kitchen where we'd shared our first tense meal.
The big master suite down the hall smelled just like him. A deep musk with hints of spice, a heavier scent than any tiger man had. My nose wasn't supposed to be receptive to a bear's scent, but it was just like the rest of me, reveling in its confusion.
James slammed the door behind us and threw me on the bed, covering my body with his muscular bulk a second later. He grabbed my wrists and pinned me down.
“You understand there's no going back after I claim you? A Denali man's bite goes deep, just like everything else. Think you can handle that, Laura?”
He gazed deep into my eyes. The frigid little girl inside me was screaming no, no, no.
I didn't hesitate. There was no more turning away. I let my tiger loose on her, and the beast tackled her to the ground, giving me complete freedom to finish the strange and marvelous thing we'd started.
My wrists twitched in his hands, squirming against him, as far as I could push my body up against his. Rolling my head to one side, I offered my neck.
“Take me. It's all yours, James. All of it. You wanted honesty? Well, it's right here.”
He didn't need another word. Before I could urge him again, he crashed toward me with a growl.
The big hands around my wrists smashed my arms deeper into the soft mattress. Most shifters claimed their mates with love bites, usually on their wedding night.
It was a little late for that, but James was making up for lost time.
His body shook. I felt soft hair prickling on his flesh, and caught a flash of his deep dark eyes, turned to a bear's black and gold.
He let go, giving the lust freedom to change him one degree to beast. His teeth were bigger and sharper than an ordinary man's as he bit into my flesh.
It stung, but I pushed myself into it, raking my skin against his teeth. He sucked deep, tonguing the circle around his teeth gently, even as they pressed deeper, deeper. I sensed the tiniest break of blood surging past his lips.
Snarling, he broke the angry kiss and rose, licking his lips. Every part of me was electrified now, jolted with lightning or else dripping wet.
I didn't even tremble as I saw the monstrous look in his eyes. But there was something else too, an admiration behind the primal desire foaming out, warming my naked flesh with his powerful light.
“Fuck, baby. I never knew a female could taste so sweet. Wish I could slow down to savor the flavor...”
We both looked down. His swollen erection pressed up along my stomach, throbbing with a hunger that was long overdue to be fulfilled.
I arched my hips, wedging myself against his length. Everything inside me was shaking to hell, but I was ready to give it up, so damned ready to give this bear my virginity and my pleasure.
James bared his teeth. With a gruff snort, he kissed me one more time, fondling my breasts before propping up his arms for maximum support. His hips rolled forward, and I thrashed as his swollen cock glided over my clit, wet and hard and ready.
His tip poised at my entrance. He looked up, his face tense with the same fire lashing through me, drawing us together with an inevitable and fierce magnetism.
“Do it,” I whispered. “Make me yours!”
I couldn't believe what I'd just said. But I believed the intense and electric sharpness splitting me in two a second later.
He pumped his hips into mine, ripping up into me, sliding his whole length to the very edge of my womb in a ferocious jerk. I threw my head back and screamed. It wasn't as bad as I expected – more like a severe stretching sensation as my slick walls rearranged themselves around his length.
His whole hard body shuddered with pleasure. James opened his gorgeous eyes and bathed me in his light again. His forehead was lined with sweat, slick with the realization we were really one.
“Gods! It's really your first time,” he growled. “You're tighter than anything I've ever had, baby, and I'm gonna treat you real good.”
Real good.
The words echoed in my head as he started to thrust. Each stroke inside me was a storm, electrifying muscles deep inside my body, mild pain and surging pleasure twisting together.
Real good.
His tempo increased. My hips moved instinctively against his, drawing him deeper, swallowing the hard length fused to my depths, inviting him deeper still. My whole body opened for him.
Real good.
It wasn't just a phrase anymore. I started to feel it, from head to toe, pleasure in its purest form.
James leaned in and kissed me deep, not missing a beat with his thrusts. His body pinned me to the bed, binding me in ecstasy. His marauding lips stole what little breath I had.
I hissed when he drew away his kiss. The explosion building was coming like thunder, and coming soon...
He sensed it too. His thrusts grew sharper, shallower. He drove into me, power fucking me until I wrapped my legs around his. My toes curled, helpless to the gasket about to go off inside me.
“James, James! Don't stop, don't let go, don't let me–“
I was going to say fall, as if such a thing were possible, but orgasm stole my breath and split my brain. I rocketed up into pure ecstasy, screaming as my core overloaded fire.
My sex sucked at his length, burning and gushing all over his pistoning cock. James drowned my vicious catcalls in his own loud growls, rocking his hips to mine so hard the bed rattled on its springs.
I bucked and thrashed and came on him. Somewhere high in the nirvana he'd shot me to, I wrapped my arms and legs around him, holding on tight as he turned to pure volcanic steel.
“Oh, fuck! Fuck, baby, I'm gonna fill you, gonna own your sweet little cunt.”
And own it, he did.
His cock bulged inside my pulsing walls and exploded. Seed rushed int
o me, fiery and hot, all the way up to my womb. It was hotter and thicker than anything I expected, jets so powerful they burned, feeding the devilish pleasure possessing us both.
I howled, sinking my teeth into his shoulder as I lost my mind. My whole body convulsed, and I tasted bear blood. Inside me, my tiger went wild, chasing her tail with frenzied snarls.
We rocked together again and again as he emptied himself inside me. We were truly one, just one extended mass of bear and tiger, man and woman, fused together while our spasms fucked and licked their way through us.
I was still shaking from head to toe when he let me down gently on the mattress. James held himself in me, milking the last of his pleasure, moving in for a powerful kiss.
“What the hell?” he said. “Never heard of a female biting her mate.”
I smiled at him. “And nobody prim and proper ever heard of a tiger and a bear doing this. Guess there's a first time for everything, right?”
I ran my tongue over my lips, still tasting the faint essence of his blood and sweat.
“Whatever, baby tiger. All I care about is making you so hot you sink your little teeth into me like that again. You can bite and scratch any time if it means feeling this pussy meltdown around my cock.”
He inhaled a deep breath, ending in another kiss. I thought he was getting softer and ready to pull out, but I was wrong. Less than a minute later, he was getting harder inside me, slowly thrusting through the hot wet mess he'd pumped deep in my womb.
Before I knew it, we were fucking again, insatiable as the fiery blood rippling in our veins.
“Gods, little cat! What are you doing to me?” He growled his last words, reaching the tempo that made the bed scream.
He didn't know the half of it. A few seconds later, I exploded for the third time, screaming my shrill pleasure and bucking up his rock hard length.
I didn't have a clue what either of us were doing, what sort of wild magic had possessed us. All I knew was it felt amazing.
Amazing and right.
We must've lost half the night in pleasure. When we were finally spent, every muscle begging for relief, I collapsed with my head on his chest in the deepest, darkest sleep of my life.
No!
I woke with a start. My whole body twitched – thankfully not sharp enough to wake him up.
Rubbing my eyes, I threw my legs over the bed and tip toed out of the bedroom. It was late morning.
A pale, wintry light shone through the windows, giving the cabin a melancholy feel.
Everything ached. Muscles, bones, hair, nails. Yes, even hair and nails.
My tiger looked up from having her face buried in her paws and growled at me. Go back to sleep, crazy girl.
The sharp aches in my body told me I'd been on quite a ride, and of course, I had. Yesterday tested me to my limits as the day flipped from hell to heaven.
I paced toward the big bay window looking over the forest. Our footprints were still in the half melted snow. In the distance, the mountain near the lake look disturbed, and a steady swath of trees had fallen where the flood swept in, pillaging the land.
I fixed myself some breakfast and fed my poor belly. It had been so long since I'd eaten that I wasn't even having hunger pangs anymore.
Chewing on eggs and caribou meat, I couldn't shake the feeling of doom. It hung over my neck like an invisible ax, ready to fall at a moment's notice.
It wasn't James and I that worried me anymore. The two of us were solid. Heck, solid as mountain stone after last night.
I saw what worried me.
My father's sinister smile appeared in my mind. I dropped my fork when the painful realization I'd been trying to push out of my head all morning hit with full force.
“Oh, Gods. He can't do this...I can't let him.”
In a matter of weeks – or maybe sooner – tigers were going to march on Denali and savagely chase the bears off their land, or die trying. And I was the tip of the spear, a lance aimed directly at James to rip the heart out of the bear clan.
I pushed my plate away, unable to finish my breakfast. I closed my eyes and said a silent prayer.
Somehow, someway, I had to get back to Tiger Bay and stop the total disaster threatening to rip me away from the happiness I'd finally found. If it came, it wouldn't stop until I was torn away from him forever.
“I'm sorry, James,” I whispered to myself.
A big hand fell on my shoulder. I jerked backward, and then jerked again when I got an eye full of his huge body, barely clad in a nice black robe open at the chest. He held another robe out to me.
“Sorry for what, beautiful?”
I shook my head, forcing a smile. At least the robe's thick, fluffy fabric was comforting.
It hurt to recoil at his touch. Last night I'd loved his hands all over me, but now it reminded me I was a ticking time bomb.
A time bomb in love with the man I was supposed to destroy.
“Nothing. I think I cooked too much caribou,” I muttered.
Gods, it's hard enough to tell him one little white lie. What the hell am I supposed to say? I gave him the truth last night, but I can't spill this one!
I imagined how it would sound and wrinkled my nose.
Oh, hi, James. Next week my father and his men are coming to kill you if you don't vacate the land you've had for generations and surrender it to Tiger Bay. Our marriage isn't a sham – it's a weapon.
I imagined the silly words and cringed a second time, quickly hiding my shudder from him.
Either way, I was screwed. I could tell him the truth, and then risk having him throw me out and wage war on Tiger Bay anyway.
A bear's temper was a ferocious thing, especially when they were surprised. If James knew what my father was planning, the Denali bears had a good chance of ransacking and conquering my people in a preemptive strike.
Or I could go running back to my father, plead with him to stop the attack. But I already knew that wouldn't work. I'd have to convince him instead, something just shy of admitting I'd broken every taboo our people had by mating with a bear.
I clenched my teeth. My tiger was up and about inside me, pacing angrily as he sat down next to me with a big mug of coffee.
When he stopped gulping down the hot brew, I rested my hand on his, squeezing the fingers that had brought me so much pleasure last night. James looked up and smiled.
His eyes were full of affection for his new wife. Make that his new two-faced wife with a really bad hangover.
I'm going to make this okay. I have to.
IV: These Painful Truths (James)
I was out on the balcony a couple days later when I heard her come up behind me. Laura wrapped her pretty hands around my abs and squeezed. I held my breath and exhaled slowly.
Right there, little tiger. You can give me a bear hug anytime.
“You've been out here all evening, James. Is something wrong?” Her warm breath poured into my ear, sending a fiery tingle straight to my cock.
It jerked in my pants. I tensed fists at my sides to dampen the desire so I could face her like a normal human being. Or at least a normal werebear.
“Been doing a lot of thinking, baby. Same thing weighing on your mind, I'm sure.” I stared at her, hoping she'd say it first.
Her face softened. The sweet smile disappeared and her eyes got a little darker. It hurt like hell to see what happened when she thought about being away from me.
“The future...you're wondering what's going to happen with us?” she asked quietly.
Her words were arranged like a question, but there was some real certainty in her voice too. Of course, she was absolutely right on too.
Damn it. I'd never put much stock in old wives tales about fated mates sharing hearts and minds, but the way she read me was too weird to ignore.
“Yeah. In here, it's heaven with you. I wouldn't trade the last few days for anything.” I wrapped my big arms around her and pulled her to my chest, right where she belonged. “Can't hide
forever, though.
My clan's gonna figure it out sooner or later. So will the tigers.”
Fear sparkled in her eyes. “And what then? You told me there was another couple once.”
“Joe and Lydia. It didn't end well. Everybody says it was heartbreak over losing their cub, but I think the fucking prejudice was what really ruined them. They tried to live and love in secret, and it didn't work.”
Laura shook her head sadly. She didn't want to believe we were heading for anything less than bliss, especially after all we'd been through.
“What's going to happen to us?” she asked, sharp desperation in her words.
“We're gonna make it. I don't give a fuck what my fellow bears say. The Elders can strip me of my Alpha post for all I care. Long as I have you, everything's worth it.”
I squeezed her tighter. She nuzzled into my chest, shaking her head, on the verge of tears.
My words weren't convincing. I believed them, sure, but I couldn't blame her for doubting it.
Then the realization hit me.
Maybe I couldn't tell her with absolute certainty what lay ahead. There was somebody who could, though.
I settled her on the ground and wiped the small tear from her cheek. She looked up, smiling and scared.
“Come on inside. Let's get to work on dinner and turn in early tonight. Tomorrow I'll show you somebody who can read what fate has in store. We'll both know then.”
“But how?” Laura whined.
“You'll see. Trust me on this. I can't guarantee it'll be what we want to hear.” I paused, sliding the door behind us shut. “And if it isn't, I don't give a shit. We'll know what's coming, and if Fate decides to be a cruel bitch, I'll grab her by the throat and knock her on her ass. You're mine, baby, and nothing –
and I mean nothing – has the tiniest chance of changing that.”
We were deep in the forest, carefully stepping over the broken trees and muddy patches left by the flood. The last few days had been a bit warmer, giving the whole woodlands a thick, dusky, slightly sour smell.
It was half a day's trek through the thick brush to get to the Shaman's cabin. Old Spark lived outside the clan, a bear who'd been born with a limp and a strange mind.
In the old times, when the first settlers came to Denali, the Elders forced female bears to test their cubs by sending them out into the wilderness for a week. Those who weren't hearty, the gods took.
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