Words of love bubbled up in his throat, but something held him back. Instead, he yielded to sensation.
Hunter couldn’t stop kissing Hadley. Her lips. The swell of her breasts. The curve of her shoulder. And still, his hips and his cock took all she offered. Demanded more. Took that too.
“More,” Hadley said, fingers tracing down his spine. Pressing against his ass. Stroking the hotly-forbidden area between his ass cheeks.
Hunter chuckled at his woman’s command. How foolish he’d been to think he was in control?
“Always,” Hunter vowed, letting her sensual cries cascade around them both as he gave her all her body craved.
And then just a little more.
<<<>>>
The night air was quiet except for the harsh sounds of their breath as they lay, still joined.
Hadley giggled a little nervously. “That was worth waiting for.” The grip around his body loosened, grew slack as their muscles relaxed.
Regret hit Hunter like a heart-punch. He hadn’t been overly promiscuous with women, but still. As Hadley had claimed. Their joining had been something worth waiting for.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered, in awe of the gift she’d bestowed upon him. He propped himself up on his forearms. “Let me clean you up,” he offered. He got out of bed and padded nude into the bathroom.
A prickle of awareness went up his spine. “Are you looking at my ass?” he asked, throwing a grin over his shoulder.
Hadley propped herself up on one elbow. “Could be,” she teased. “It’s not every day I see a naked bear shifter walking around the bedroom.”
Hunter laughed as the water warmed up and he got washcloth out for her. “Seems to me, you’ve seen me naked almost every day since you met me. You know, come to think on it, this is the first time I’ve gotten to see you without any clothes on.”
He returned to the room and knelt on the bed. “Let me,” he whispered, one hand parting her thighs, the other trailing the warm, soothing wash cloth across her thighs. Between her legs, soothing away the last traces of her innocence. “Such a beautiful gift. One I will treasure for the rest of my life.” His gaze met Hadley’s, and he smiled at her pretty blush.
After putting the wet towels in the sink for later, Hunter crawled under the covers and pulled Hadley close to him. “Not that I don’t appreciate waking up next to you, but what happened?”
“You were having a nightmare,” she said. Hadley sighed and relaxed into his arms. How different their bodies were from only twenty-four hours earlier.
“Taking on a thousand-pound bear shifter in the throes of a night terror might not have been your brightest move,” Hunter said. His arms tightened around her, and he sent a silent thanks to Bal for not hurting her.
Bal! For the first time in the fifteen years since he’d undergone DNA splicing, Bal had been completely dormant. Hunter looked into himself and found the bear calmly sleeping. And… was he purring?
Bears don’t purr, he said to Bal.
Bal stretched, realized the effort was too much and curled back up to sleep. We do when we’re happy, asshole. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Hunter snorted.
“What’s wrong?” Hadley asked with a yawn.
“Bal. He fell asleep and started purring.”
“Bears purr? Who knew?”
“I know, right? That’s what I said. He told me he was happy and to enjoy it.”
Hadley, tightly ensconced in Hunter’s arms, reached behind her and patted whatever bit of skin she could reach. “Thank you, Bal.”
Tears formed in Hunter’s eyes at how perfectly Hadley fit him. He tightened his arms, reveling in her feminine curves as he pressed her against him. It was perfection. Like a too-large hand that had finally found the perfect glove.
Chapter Six
Hadley
She was getting used to naked shifters. Her nurse’s training left her immune. At least that’s what she told herself when Quinn came in from his run.
“Your pants are in the bedroom,” Lacey called out as if having her husband walk around nude was an everyday occasion.
Which, come to think of it, it probably was.
“Do you have burgers for the grill?” Lacey asked. “These men like to eat. Especially after they’ve been on a run.”
Hadley nodded as she put the finishing touches on the burgers. “Three for each of the guys. Two for each of us? With all the sides? Are you sure we aren’t going to have too much food?”
“I invited Melody, too,” Lacey said. “Why don’t you make three more burgers?”
Rolling her eyes, Hadley pulled out another package of ground beef. “I made a huge thing of mac and cheese. You made a salad. Plus, half a grocery aisle worth of chips.”
“Knock, knock.” Melody peeked in the door. “Hey, girls! Thanks for thinking about me. I do love a good cookout.”
Lacey gave her friend a brief hug while Hadley waved with her hand full of burger patty.
“Did you bring the sweet tea like I asked?” Lacey asked.
“Sure did. Hunter is emptying my trunk out.”
“I’d enjoy our cookout more if Hadley wasn’t leaving in the morning.”
“We’ve been over this, Lacey,” Hadley said. After placing the additional patties on the platter, she washed her hands and greeted Melody properly. “I have a job, an apartment, and a life back home. I will start looking at jobs out here, but my vacation is up, and I need to go home.”
“But you just got yourself a growly lover,” Lacey protested as she loaded up a tray to take out to the picnic area. “You can’t leave now.”
How did she tell her best friend that one growly lover hadn’t asked her to stay?
Melody snorted. “I need a growly lover.”
Lacey winked. “Maybe you’ll find one. Jason Fox is coming tonight,” she teased.
“Isn’t he a bear shifter?” Melody asked. Arms loaded, she led the way out the cabin door.
“A bear named Fox?” Hadley took up the rear with her platter of endless burger patties.
“You don’t need a bear named Fox,” Hunter said as he snuck up behind her. He relieved her of the tray and gave her a light kiss on the forehead. “This looks great ya’ll.” He looked at the platter in his hands. “Will this be enough burgers?”
Together, laughing, teasing, Hadley, Lacey, and Melody set up the picnic table. “Is there a tablecloth?” Hadley asked looking at Lacey.
“Um, I haven’t seen one,” Lacey admitted with a rueful grin. “Guess I didn’t think that far ahead.”
“I saw a pile of newspaper,” Melody said. She put her food down. “I’ll go get it, and we can just improvise.”
One by one, their friends showed up. Jason Fox, the bartender at the Lusty Leopard, showed up with a keg of beer.
“A keg? There’s just the eight of us, Jason,” Lacey said, giving him a welcoming hug.
An ancient pickup pulled into the driveway. “Oh. I didn’t know Quinn had invited Dan,” Lacey said. She gave Jason a sisterly peck on the cheek and went to meet her newest guest.
“Hey, Dan, welcome to Maxwell Mountain,” Lacey said. She nodded her head towards the group. “You hungry, darlin’?”
Dan nodded, one hand touching the eyepatch he wore over his right eye.
“These are my friends Hadley and Melody,” Lacey said, introducing Dan around.
“The coals should be cool enough in about twenty minutes,” Jason said as he poured Dan a beer.
“Thanks,” Dan said, but Hadley noticed he didn’t take a sip.
But just as they finished laying out the newspaper, Cree bolted into the clearing. He shifted mid-jump, a stunning show of tawny fur morphing into skin.
“Fire,” he bellowed from his perch on the table.
“Cree, what are you talking about? It’s just a cookout,” Lacey said, tilting her head. “I know you’re afraid of fire, sweetie, but I promise, It’s just a small one.”
“No,” Cree cried, his
voice growing desperate. Panicked. “Can’t you smell it?”
In the distance, they heard the unmistakable wail of ambulance sirens as they raced up the switchbacks.
Horror dawned on the small group. The line shack was too far up the mountain for firetrucks. The fire could only be put out by airplane.
Quinn barreled out of the house still holding his cell phone. “Fire up on the line shack,” he called. He skidded to a stop a few feet from the picnic table. “Kids may be hurt. Smokejumpers are on their way. Let’s roll.”
“Get the food inside so we don’t attract any wild animals,” Hunter said. He gave Hadley a kiss, his dark eyes already sad. “Stay inside. Be prepared to evac if they can’t get the fire under control.” His fingers dug into her shoulders with the intensity of his words. “I will be fine, but you have to keep yourself safe.”
Hadley nodded, numbly. Nothing like this had ever happened in her nice, orderly life before.
And in a blur of skin, torn denim, and fur the five shifters took off. The small group of shifters raced to save the kids camping around the line shack and to do what they could to help the smokejumpers.
Dan looked at the women. There was a look of terror on his face. Hadley felt drawn to him, like somehow, she should comfort him.
He gritted his teeth, arched his neck, and in a loud whooshing sound, he took to the air.
“A hawk shifter?” Hadley said to no one in particular. “I didn’t even know that was a thing.” Stunned, she watched as the one-eyed bird of prey took to the air.
“Let’s get the food back in the fridge,” Lacey said. “The guys will be starving when this is over.”
Hadley caught her arm. “We aren’t staying here, are we?”
“Oh, fudge no,” Lacey said. Hadley couldn’t help but grin at her friend’s insistence on not swearing. “We can help triage anyone who is sick or injured. But we do need to put the food away, or we’ll have more critters than we can feed.”
“I’ll get my bag,” Hadley said. “I’ve got an O2 tank in the car.”
Lacey stopped. “You brought oxygen with you?”
Hadley shrugged. “You said it was an emergency but didn’t say what kind. I brought everything I could think of.”
While Hadley got her medical supplies, Lacey and Melody secured the picnic area.
“We have ATVs in the garage. I grabbed sweatpants for the guys,” Lacey said once everything was cleaned up and medical supplies collected. “Let’s go.”
Hunter
Of course, the women would refuse to stay at home, Hunter thought as he and Quinn pulled the third kid out of the burning building. They communicated seamlessly as they set the kids outside the perimeter.
The scene was crazy. Lung-clogging smoke billowed as the firefighters struggled to contain the flame. It had been a wet spring so far, which was in their favor. But any wind or spark could send the fire into the trees.
Airplanes zoomed past, dropping water and fire retardant in the trees around the clearing.
“I got the kids,” Hadley said, raising her voice to be heard over the din. She took the girl’s hand and led her away from the commotion. The girl was screaming, scared from the fire, the danger, and the strong teeth of the grizzly bear who was too close for comfort.
“I know, hon,” Hadley crooned, brushing the girl’s matted hair away from her sweat and soot-covered face. “That’s a hero, though. A bear shifter.”
The rest of what Hadley said was lost in the raging sound of fire, screaming kids, and roiling smoke.
Still too close, Bal grumbled, but Hunter shushed him. They had a job to do. There were three more kids trapped inside.
Hunter passed Cree pulling a kid out by the scruff of his denim jacket. Two, he amended.
They’d arrived, a wild ragtag bunch that had immediately scared the shorts off the only adult in the group. Quinn, always the leader, shifted into his human form. “How many in the shack?” he called out in his gunnery sergeant voice. There was something in that voice that could stop a man cold.
The man in khaki shorts responded immediately. “I had ten kids with me. I’m missing five.”
A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that Hadley, Lacey, and Melody were taking care of eight of them. Two left.
They charged back into the burning shack. Timbers were popping as the dried wood caught and fell in a deathly maize. Bal bellowed through the thick black smoke, seeking the faint scent of any humans left inside.
There!
Hunter bellowed, moving towards a back room. Using his body, he crashed into a tiny broom closet. Wood splintered beneath him, but it revealed the unconscious body of a boy.
Quinn was right on his heels, howling with fear. Using the gentle grip of his Mastiff’s mouth, he gripped the boy’s belt and began pulling him out of danger. Hunter led the way, clearing the path between killing smoke and sweet fresh air.
“Over here!” The man in the khaki shorts waved his hands. “We found Daniella. Just one more left.”
Overwhelming relief poured over Hunter. They had the last child. Now if only they could get out of the burning inferno that surrounded them.
The child behind him stirred and Hunter felt a flashback beginning, and he pushed it off. Not now, he insisted. A beam fell, trapping Quinn and the boy in the back corner.
They stared at each other through the fire, smoke, and haze. Quinn looked around, realized he was trapped and shook his head. Silently telling Hunter to leave him. Leave them.
“Nooo.” No more children were going to die. Not on his watch! Hunter wasn’t sure if it was him or Bal who howled the response. Maybe both, but it no longer mattered.
Hunter’s bear charged through the burning beams, using the bulk of his body to lay down on the seared floor.
Quinn nodded in understanding and used Hunter’s body as a bridge to the outside world.
Hunter felt his fur become singed, and he coughed. He felt oddly at peace that this was going to be how he died. Saving others. It fit somehow.
The scream of a mountain lion in full fury had the power to stir him. Hunter lifted one eyelid, shocked to see Cree standing there. Huffing in exertion.
Cree was a big cat, a hundred and fifty pounds of pure sinew and muscle. But he was no match for an exhausted bear. He shifted, a blur of tawny fur.
“Shift, mother fucker!” Cree was frantic. “I can get you out, but shift!”
That didn’t seem right. Cree hated him, right? But all of Hunter’s memories seemed fuzzy now. He no longer remembered where he was or why he couldn’t see.
Hunter opened his mouth to ask but coughed instead.
“You have a mate. Shift for her, if not yourself,” Cree ordered. Cree pushed and shoved at Hunter’s grizzly.
A mate? Realization burst through as Hunter remembered Hadley. Her passion. The taste of her love. Could she actually be his mate?
The word felt right in his mind. Proper. And as Hunter slipped into unconsciousness, Bal took over and forced the shift back into human.
Cree grabbed hold of Hunter’s uninjured shoulder and pulled them both to safety.
<<<>>>
“Damn it, Quinn, where is he?” Hadley called. She kept trying to dart around Quinn, but he was too fast. Herding her away from the now-dying embers of the fire.
Around them were the sounds of the firefighting crew, shouting orders and water falling from the sky as the aircrews desperately worked to keep the fire from spreading. They could target the building but were holding off until the people were out.
“I’ve got lover boy over here,” Cree called out before he collapsed next to Hunter. Dan and Quinn acted in harmony, each running to grab a different man and pull them both away from the ravages of the flames.
Jason waved to the aircrews, letting them know the last of the people were out of danger. “Let’s get down to the ambulances,” he said.
Quinn hoisted Hunter into a fireman’s carry and took off down the mountain towards the waitin
g ambulances. Hadley held out her hand. “We have an ATV. Let me hook him up with an O2 tank and then take him on that.”
Quinn’s panicked eyes looked around. Took in the safety of his mate. His friends. The vehicle. He got Hunter on the rack, allowing Hadley just enough time to hook him up to an oxygen tank, and then he gunned the engine. Soon, he was just a retreating dot on the horizon as they took off.
“Let’s get you down, too,” Lacey said to Cree as she handed him a pair of the sweats she’d brought with her.
“He has a mate,” he explained, his voice hoarse from smoke inhalation. “I couldn’t let him die.”
“I know, baby,” Lacey said, tears in her golden eyes. “But I don’t want you to die, either, okay?”
Cree nodded, exhaustion in every line of his face. He climbed on the back of Lacey’s ATV and held on while she drove them down the hill.
Hadley turned to Melody. “Let’s go.” She took one more look around at the carnage wrought by the fire. With them out of the way, the airplanes were free to dump water and douse the last of the flames.
Melody nodded dully and got on the ATV to head down to the where the ambulances were triaging the injured.
Chapter Seven
Hadley
Thanks to the quick thinking and faster actions of the former special forces men, no kids were seriously injured, and the fire was completely contained.
It was a slow-moving group that headed back to the cabins after being checked out by the EMTs. Lacey curled into Quinn’s lap as he drove, hanging on as though her world had almost come crashing down around their ears.
Hadley rode on the back of Hunter’s ATV, lost in her thoughts and oblivious to the beautiful spring afternoon. “I don’t want to let go,” she whispered against his broad, muscular back as he parked in the shed. Even if she could have raised her voice, she didn’t want to.
Everything seemed too loud. Too fragile. On the precipice of an explosion. Instead, she relaxed into him. Relying on his shifter strength and hearing to take care of them both.
“You don’t have to, baby,” Hunter said. He swung his legs around and hoisted her hips and draped her legs around his hips. “Hold on tight, okay?”
Her Broken Bear Page 5
