Jade Crew: Outcast Bear (Standalone Paranormal Romance) (Ridgeback Bears Book 5)

by Amelia Jade

The tip of him pushed inside of her and she cried out, not in pain, but in delight.

  “More!” she ordered, ignoring the slight pain that came with it. She was wet enough to take him, and she didn’t want to take it as slow as the first time. She wanted to feel him thrust into her.

  Corey obeyed her order and several more inches of his rock-hard cock penetrated deep within her. There was another fleeting moment of pain but her walls adjusted quickly to his size, and she pushed her hips toward him, practically begging for more. Finally Corey relented and buried himself completely within her, thrusting forward until his hips ground against hers.

  She trembled in his grip, from her toes to the hands held above her head she could barely control the shivering sensation as her body reacted to him. He was watching her, and as she focused on him he began to move, withdrawing an inch and then pushing back in half the distance.

  He was teasing her!

  She cried out in sadness and tried to push her hips toward him again, but he just moved away from her.

  “No, I want it!” she complained. “Please put it back in me,” she asked.

  His eyes abruptly focused on her.

  Oh, he liked that sentence?

  “Please,” she said again, making herself sound as desperate as possible.

  The sheer sexuality that overtook his expression sent a fresh wave of warm honey between her legs, and the deep growl that came from his throat made her nipples instantly erect.

  “You like my cock?” The deep bass of his voice filled her from within even as he pulled his cock out.

  “I do,” she gasped. “I do so much. Please. Please give it to me,” she said, playing along, even if her desire for him wasn’t faked. She liked being at his mercy! The realization struck her like a bullet, and all of a sudden Jenny knew she had made a profound discovery in her new sexual adventures.

  “Okay,” he said and plunged within her even faster.

  “Holy shit,” she yelped as pain and pleasure exploded from between her legs. The pain was fleeting and temporary, just real enough to ground the pleasure in reality, making her more aware of the burning rod that had caused it.

  He moved his hips again and again, no longer pausing in his movements. He was fucking her, and she was going wild trying not to cry out too loudly. Corey must have sensed it because he mashed his lips against hers just before she lost control, distracting her momentarily as his tongue pushed past her lips to explore inside her mouth.

  The climax ripped through her without warning, tensing the muscles in her spine. She arched up, fighting against the restraint of his hand. He didn’t stop moving above her either, the constant thrusting amplifying her orgasm as she threw her head back, unable to continue kissing him.

  Through the glowing haze of bliss that began to settle over her, she heard Corey grunt, and thought she felt his cock swell even more.

  “Yes!” she told him. “Come on, finish for me,” she told him, grinding her hips into his as hard as she could.

  Her words had an instantaneous effect, and he cried out her name as his cock shot molten liquid inside of her, even while he continued to fuck her hard. Her legs wrapped around his hips, pulling him tight to her as his motions slowed. Their mouths found each other again and they kissed, though some of the vigorousness had faded as they calmed.

  Finally the two of them collapsed in a heap, completely finished. Both parties were gasping for breath, neither ready to speak. She knew for a fact however that the happy smile she saw on his face was mimicked on her own.

  “Wow,” she managed to gasp, pulling him in tight as he tried to move away. “Not yet.”

  Too tired to respond, he simply nodded, resting himself on top of her. After a minute, she realized something.

  “Can I have my hands back?” she asked, struggling against his grip.

  “I’m not sure,” he replied. “I’m not entirely convinced I’m done with you.”

  She blinked in astonishment as she realized he was hard again.

  “Already?”

  Corey grinned evilly. “Do you not want it?”

  Jenny’s reply was lost in the cry of pleasure as he pushed back inside of her.

  ***

  “I can’t get over how gorgeous today is!” Jenny said, flinging her arms wide as they hiked through one of the numerous trails on the mountainside.

  The sun was out and shining, beaming down on them to the point she had only a light jacket and warm athletic pants on. Corey, of course, was wearing no more than a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans, his usual outfit. She had a flash of jealousy, but a quick glance at the way the jeans held his cute butt made her forget all about it.

  “It sure is wonderful,” he agreed absentmindedly, punching buttons on his phone.

  He’d been doing a lot of that during their hike. She frowned, unsure on whether to bring it up or not.

  Fuck it, this was supposed to be a date, and he was having a hard time focusing in on her.

  “Hot date?” she asked sarcastically.

  “Hmm?” he said, not looking up.

  “Who is she?” she asked next, becoming more irate at having been flat-out ignored.

  “Who is who?” he asked, looking up at last, though his eyes were searching the trail, not cluing in to what was going on.

  “The woman on your phone,” Jenny snapped at last, slamming her hand between his eyes and the phone.

  He sighed. “It’s not a woman.”

  The way he said it, she knew he wasn’t lying. Something was bothering him about who the other person was, but that was just it. Whoever it was, they were keeping him unsettled and unhappy. Besides, he couldn’t be stupid enough to be blatantly texting another woman in front of her. She wondered about his choices sometimes, but not on that front.

  It had been almost a full week now since the fight with her mother, and the two hadn’t spoken since. She really did not feel like getting into a fight with Corey right then and there.

  “Can you focus on me, please?” she asked nicely. “You’ve been on your phone all day. It’s clearly bugging you, and you’re starting to rub your mood off on me.” She looked at him crossly, then relented. “What can I do to help?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, almost despairingly.

  “Well, how about you explain to me what’s going on first?” she prodded.

  He seemed to almost deflate in front of her. “It’s my old crew,” he said at last.

  “Your old crew?” She didn’t understand. “I thought shifters were assigned a crew and they stayed with it.”

  Corey grimaced. She took his hand and gave it a squeeze, bringing it to her face so she could kiss it.

  “Normally that’s the way things are done. There are exceptions. I happen to be one.”

  She looked at him, sudden understanding dawning. “You miss them,” she said at last. “That’s why you don’t do much with the other Jade Crew bears like Darren and Russell,” she said, using the names of some that she had met.

  “Exactly,” Corey said, nodding. “They want me to come back. They’ve given me an offer to return to their crew.”

  Now it was Jenny’s turn to frown, before it became thoughtful. “Why did you leave in the first place?”

  “I didn’t exactly leave,” he admitted. “I was kicked out.”

  Her eyebrows rose at that. “They kicked you out, and now you want to go running back to them?” There was derision in her voice. She didn’t know why he’d been kicked out, but she did know that a crew was supposed to be a family, and that family didn’t kick a member out.

  At least, not unless they’re my family, she thought. But if that were the case, why did he want to go back?

  “It’s not that simple,” he said with a shrug. “I had to go. I didn’t fit in anymore.”

  “And you will now?” she asked, astonished. “Something big must have changed.”

  “I don’t know,” he said. The frustration in his voice was directed at himself, she could te
ll. “Probably nothing, but I’d still be more welcome there than where I am now!”

  “Why did they kick you out?” she asked again, but this time she put a little steel in her voice, letting him know she needed to answer.

  “The Diamonds aren’t as pure as they’re made out to be,” he admitted. “They have some rather pronounced…prejudices, I guess. I didn’t agree, and so I was told to leave.”

  That wasn’t the entire truth she knew, but it was enough for her to make a decision.

  “You know I care for you deeply, right?” she began tentatively, hoping to frame her comment in that context.

  Corey nodded. “Yes, though I have a feeling that you prefacing your statement with that means you’re going to hit me with something hard.”

  She smiled. “I’m glad you know me so well.” She took his hand in hers, using both of hers to cover his. “Corey Baleski, the problem isn’t your current crew.”

  “It’s not?” he asked, thoroughly confused.

  Jenny shook her head. “No. It’s you.”

  “Me?” he echoed. She could see the anger blaze to life, but something about it must have gotten through to him, because he held his tongue, waiting for her to continue speaking.

  “Yes, you. You say you aren’t fitting in, but when I look around, it’s not because they’re shutting you out. It’s because you’re closing yourself off. You refuse to open yourself up to them, to allow them into your life. It’s like you’re too busy holding onto what you had that you’re unable to accept what you have. And trust me, those guys are all pretty damn good people.”

  She held on tightly to his hand, preventing him from pulling away from it. He needed to hear this. She had seen it fairly quickly, but hadn’t realized just how badly tormented Corey was by the whole situation. Jenny kicked herself for not acting on it sooner before it came to a head.

  “Does your current crew even know where you came from?” she accused, pressing her advantage.

  “No.” He looked at her pleadingly. “I was sworn to secrecy by Damien. I couldn’t tell them!”

  Jenny frowned. “Who’s Damien?”

  “He’s the second-in-command of the LMC after the Kedyns. These days he likely runs most of the company, especially with Valen now a fugitive from his own brother.”

  “Why would he care if you told them that you used to be part of the Diamond Crew?”

  Corey sighed. “It’s not that I was a member, it’s why I left. Was removed. Whatever,” he said, throwing his hands in the air in frustration.

  “Why did you have to leave?” she asked slowly.

  He looked at her, and she could sense him analyzing things between them and whether he trusted her enough to tell her. She was slightly offended that he didn’t immediately know the answer, but she understood at the same time. Promising to keep a secret is a big deal, and not something that should be broken without careful thought.

  “They got a little too radical, and I didn’t agree with everything,” he said at last.

  Her eyebrows narrowed, though she didn’t speak. That was a partial answer, but he owed her more than that. So she waited, determined not to say anything until he fully explained.

  After several minutes of terse silence between them, he caved. “They think that they’re superior to others, and that the ‘lesser’ crews will get what they deserve. I got into an argument over it with the Alpha, Michael, and it was determined that I was no longer a good fit. So I was given the option of either leaving and keeping the secret about their true nature to myself, or face summary ending.”

  Jenny gasped. She had picked up enough shifter terminology over the years to know that “summary ending” meant instant death, likely at the hands of his Alpha. She couldn’t blame him for wanting to get away from that. Nobody could be faulted for that. But what horrified her the most was the revelation of how the Diamonds thought, and the fact that Corey wanted to go back there!

  “You would rather be with people like that than with the Jade Crew?” she asked slowly, forcing herself to accept that maybe she would need to re-evaluate things with Corey. Perhaps he wasn’t entirely the person she thought he was.

  “I don’t know,” he said, anguished. Abruptly he sat down, throwing his back against a tree. “Even though I disagreed with that, I always felt more at home there than I have since. I just want that feeling back,” he told her.

  She sat down opposite him. Corey was opening up to her. Not just partially, but he was completely baring his soul for her to see and judge, to understand the torment that seemed to have wrapped its fingers around his very core. She needed to make him see that going back wasn’t an option. There had to be a way. If he was like them, they never would have kicked him out, so they must know what they were getting with Corey.

  That was it.

  “Corey,” she asked. “What do they want from you?”

  His head snapped up from where he had been morosely examining the forest floor. “What?”

  She snorted. “Don’t play me like the fool now. They aren’t going to let you back in just like that. They know you don’t fit in, and that you were kicked out already. They want something from you, don’t they?”

  The expression of outrage on his face crumbled. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to treat you like an idiot. I was just surprised that you could figure all that out. But I guess it makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?” He hung his head again, taking a deep breath. “They want me to spy on Garrett and the Jades.” He paused. “I think.”

  “You think?” She tried to keep her voice level and calm at the revelation.

  “They haven’t outright said as much yet, but that’s the impression I’ve been getting from what Travis, the number two over there, has been saying and hinting at.”

  Jenny felt anger of her own flaring at the idea of betraying Garrett, Russell, and the others. They were good people. “And what have you told him?”

  “I haven’t,” he responded immediately, his eyes rising once more to meet hers, but this time in challenge, as if to say, “I’m telling the truth, I dare you to call me on it.”

  “I believe you,” she said after a slight hesitation. “But what do we do now?”

  “We?” he asked in surprise.

  “Yes,” she sighed in exasperation, moving closer so that she could sit in his lap. “We’re in this together, you dummy.”

  His arms wrapped around her, holding her tight.

  “Thank you,” he whispered in her ear.

  “For what? All I’ve done today is slap you upside the head to try and shake loose some common sense.”

  She bounced slightly in his lap as he laughed, and much of the tension fled the situation. “I think you succeeded. I certainly couldn’t have done it myself. So thank you,” he said again, tilting her head back so he could kiss her.

  “Does this mean you’ve made up your mind?” she asked, pulling back from him so she could look deep into his eyes when he responded.

  Chapter Nine

  Corey

  The question still echoed in his head a day later. Had he made up his mind? Jenny had made a number of good points, and Corey knew that sooner or later he would have to address the situation. He had agreed to give his current crew an honest shot. He didn’t want to betray them in any way either, though he wasn’t sure exactly why the Diamonds would need any inside information from them.

  He looked around the room that had been assigned to him after the renovations to the old motel had been complete. It wasn’t his original room, just like he wasn’t with his original crew. But that didn’t mean he hated it. In fact, it was actually better than the original. When the Jade Crew had first moved into the lodge, everyone got their own room. That had worked out fine, but almost immediately the bears had started pairing up, leaving the original rooms rather cramped.

  In response Garrett had decreed that they would further renovate the place, joining two of the rooms together, so that there was space for the bears and their mates. The
motel had originally had eighteen rooms, and there were only seven shifters in the crew, so they had several spares that they had left as single units for guests.

  I wonder if this is a metaphor that I should be paying attention to. Liked the first room, I wasn’t excited about moving, but I can’t complain about what I got in exchange. This room is huge comparatively.

  He had to admit the scenery was much nicer now as well. Most days Jenny stayed over, and he could get used to waking up to her naked form next to him.

  Very used to it.

  For now though, he was sitting on the edge of the bed. The work day was over and the others were gathering to head into town to the Tongue & Flame for some drinks. They had found another Dragon Stone today and a celebration was in order. Corey was trying to decide if he should go or not.

  Horns beeped from outside, signaling that they were ready to go. It was now or never.

  “Fuck it,” he said aloud, standing up from the bed and moving quickly to the door. He yanked it open only to see that one of the trucks was already gone and the other was backing out from its parking spot in front of Russell’s room.

  He gave chase, running it down.

  “That’s what you get for waiting so long,” he muttered to himself, pulling open the rear door.

  “Corey,” came the surprised greeting. Russell and Gwen were in the front seats, while the back had Cole and Joel in it.

  “Hey,” he said as relaxed as he could, hopping into the free seat. “Where’s Trestin?” he asked Cole.

  “Meeting us there,” he explained.

  There was no hesitation in his voice, but Corey definitely picked up a hint of trepidation as it filled the entire truck. He never carpooled, always preferring to take his own ride unless it was unavoidable. All of them were internally curious as to why he had suddenly decided to go with them. He wondered what the best way to approach the situation would be.

  He thought about it briefly, and then decided to just do his best and take the bull by the horns and go straight to the heart of it.

  “Thanks for stopping for me,” he said at first.

  “Hey, we’re crew,” Russell said, as if that were enough of an answer.