Defending the Bear (Blue Ridge Bears Book 2)

by Jasmine B. Waters

  Thor’s eyes darkened with anticipatory pleasure, and he gave me a sharp-toothed smile in return. “Your request is granted, my lady.”

  Two more days. Two more kills, and we’d be through with this nightmare.

  And then Thor’s head was going to be mine.

  Chapter 5

  Luke

  “What the hell was that?” I demanded the moment the door of our quarters shut quietly behind her.

  “What was what?” she asked a tad too innocently.

  “That. Out there.” I jabbed a finger in the general direction of the arena.

  “You need to sit down,” she said, digging in the brown, leather satchel Adner had given her. “You’re going to make that leg worse if you move it too much.”

  I sat with all the grace of a petulant toddler and extended my leg so she could look at it. She prodded my wound a few times. I screwed up my face, so I wouldn’t snap something unkind at her. The fabric around the wound squelched sickeningly.

  “Nothing for it,” she muttered. “Take your pants off.”

  “Is that the stock phrase of the day?” I muttered irritably.

  I knew I’d fucked up the moment the words left my mouth. My suspicion was confirmed a moment later when she did the slow head-tilt up that only moms and pissed-off girlfriends were able to fully master. Her hazel eyes were as flat and cold as iced-coffee.

  “I don’t owe you anything Luke, least of all an explanation. So, you can take your pants off and let me look at it, or you can place yourself in the tender care of Adner, Burr, or Cadby.”

  I flinched, both from the remoteness in her tone, and the idea of Adner kneeling down there to stitch me up. I imagined he’d have no problems sticking the needle where it wasn’t wanted.

  Together we managed to wrestle the cotton breeches off. They were normally loose and billowy, but the fabric had gotten soaked and stuck in the gash in my leg.

  My thigh throbbed painfully. I knew the boar hadn’t nicked an artery. If it had slashed my artery, I’d have died on the field before Audrey’s defense could have done any good. It still hurt like a bitch, though.

  Audrey knelt between my parted thighs and peered at my leg. She breathed a sigh of relief.

  “It’s shallow. Thank God.”

  She dug into the satchel again and produced a little plastic bottle of alcohol and a Ziploc bag of cotton balls. Somehow I couldn’t imagine Adner or Burr packing the medical bags in such neatly delineated order. Somehow, I suspected the ever-efficient Major was responsible.

  Where was he, anyway? He’d seemed like something of a big shot. I hadn’t seen him since he’d given us the rundown of the rules. Was he whipping the graduates of this little program into shape even now? Were they already out there, wreaking havoc on Freyr’s plans?

  I was drawn out of my thoughts by what felt like a trail of fire running down my thigh. I let out a yelp that one could graciously call unmanly and nearly slapped Audrey’s hands away.

  “Calm down. I’m almost done,” she muttered. “It’ll need a few stitches, and then you’ll be good as new.”

  “Just spare me the torture and stitch me up already.”

  She gave me another flat look. “We’ve been rolling around in mud and God knows what else. If I don’t clean this, you’ll get an infection.”

  She said it with such practiced authority. I remembered her mentioning attending college in one of our brief exchanges before lights out. Was that what she’d gone for? To become a nurse? Somehow, I thought she’d look sexy in a pair of scrubs. Who was I kidding? She’d look good in anything.

  Even in blood, it appeared. I traced the drying symbol on her face. It looked like an arrow. “What does this mean?”

  She paused midway through threading her needle.

  “It’s a rune,” she said after a moment. “It means victory. I thought I could play to the judges.”

  I cupped her chin, tilting it up lightly so I could see her face. How the hell had I gotten so lucky?

  “You’re so smart,” I murmured. “How do you know all of this?”

  “I majored in folklore and mythology.”

  “And the medical stuff?” I asked.

  She pursed her lips and said nothing. God, I hated it when she did that. I didn’t like it when she retreated into herself, away from me.

  She stitched the wound closed and swabbed the area again for good measure. Or maybe to watch me suffer, for prying into her personal business. Either seemed plausible given the mood she was in. She wrapped the wound in gauze and took a step back, looking pleased with her work.

  “There. Good as new. Don’t walk on that tonight. I know you heal fast, but that won’t be gone for another day or two at least. And be sure you don’t favor it tomorrow. We don’t want anyone thinking you have a weakness.”

  “Alright.”

  She frowned up at me, clearly not believing a word.

  “I mean it. This isn’t going to heal overnight.”

  “Not with just rest, no.”

  I wanted to kick myself, but my foot was metaphorically lodged so far in my mouth I didn’t see the point. Why couldn’t I seem to control myself around her? She’d want an explanation, and that wasn’t a tidbit I wanted to share, no matter how interesting I’d found it when Chance had told me.

  “What’s that supposed to mean? Is there something else that can help?”

  It was my turn to shut down. I shook my head once, lips pursed tightly together in imitation of her signature expression. I carefully swung my legs up and lay down. I’d get the rest she’d ordered and never, ever even hint at the ability that Norse were-animals, along with a collection of other shifters, possessed.

  A moment later, I felt her carefully climb onto the narrow bed. She and I barely fit. She had to put herself half on top of me to squeeze into the small space. I wasn’t a featherweight myself and, skinny though she might have been, Audrey wasn’t petite.

  She touched the side of my face gently with one hand. She’d started to get callouses where she held the spear.

  “Tell me,” she insisted. “It’s important. If there’s anything that can get you back to full strength, tell me. We need to be a strong front out there tomorrow. We nearly lost. It’ll be savage tomorrow.”

  The warmth of her body against mine drove me to distraction. I hadn’t thought I’d ever get this close to her. She seemed to despise the idea of being with me in anything other than a platonic fashion. I thought I’d made my peace with that. I wasn’t going to drag her by her hair back to the cave and force her to be my wife. If I could be with her in any capacity, that would be enough.

  “You won’t like it,” I muttered.

  “How bad can it possibly be?”

  I wondered if she was talking to me, or trying to convince herself.

  “It’s not unique to our species, but it is pretty rare,” I began slowly. “You’ve majored in folklore and mythology, right? So maybe you’ve heard of it. The most commonly accepted and well-known term that’s related to what we do is called tantric healing.”

  She stilled above me. If I concentrated, I could make out the acceleration of her heart.

  “I don’t know if it works,” I continued. I was probably making the whole thing worse, babbling on and on, but I couldn’t seem to help it. “My mentor says it’s a pretty common method used after battle, if a were-animal has a mate or a willing partner. It’s probably why some of the guys I’ve clobbered are showing up again, right as rain.”

  Her silence was a physical weight, dragging my heart to my stomach by inches.

  “Will any sexual contact do?” she asked finally. “Or does it need to be penetration?”

  I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “I’m not sure. He didn’t specify. It got uncomfortable after he started talking about how great it was with my sister. So, I tuned him out.”

  She laughed quietly, and the motion did interesting things
to the press of her breasts against my chest. After another agonizing minute of contemplation she finally spoke.

  “We’ll try. But only try, mind you. I can’t guarantee anything.”

  My pleasure at the thought of touching her was eclipsed by my guilt. I might as well have blackmailed her into sleeping with me. Her life was in danger if I was injured or incapacitated, and she was too practical a person to let an opportunity go.

  I caught her around the waist before she could slide off of me onto the floor.

  “You don’t have to,” I protested, though my bear snarled its displeasure in my head.

  Grow up, I hissed back at it. It was the most flippant thing I’d dared say to the monster. But it couldn’t work its way into a proper rage. Not with Audrey pressed tightly against us, her scent saturating the air.

  “I don’t feel obligated, Luke,” she protested. “It’s not really the time or the place, but I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about it.”

  “That’s the mating bond. You don’t really–”

  “I know what I want, Luke Elmsong. Now shut your mouth and let me have this.”

  My jaw snapped shut. Probably for the best. My big, fat mouth tended to find a way to ruin everything. My grip slackened on her waist, and she slid off of me.

  She crossed the small room in three, long strides and flicked the lights off. I blinked, disoriented in the darkness. It would only take a minute for my eyes to adjust, but I felt hideously vulnerable while I was blind.

  I sat up, trying to peer this way and that, straining my ears to detect her footsteps. I heard nothing. If my ears were correct, there was no one in the room with me. Which was why it was so startling when her hand came down on my bare, uninjured thigh.

  “Gah. I should put a bell on you. You’re like a cat. How’d you learn to be so quiet, anyways?”

  She laughed softly, and finally my eyes started to adjust. There wasn’t much moonlight. Definitely Thor’s doing. He’d kept the ridge covered in clouds for two weeks and showed no signs of stopping. It seemed stupid to me. He was as mortal as the rest of them unless Idun had been found and her apples were returned to the Aesir.

  Or maybe I was underestimating him. The fog didn’t have to come from a supernatural source, did it? One of our neighbors, who always overdid it at Halloween, had managed to use so much dry ice that he’d obscured half the block in the fog.

  I was jolted out of that line of thought when Audrey reached up and cupped me in her palm. I might have made a choked noise. Inside of me, the bear roared its triumph. Our mate was close, she was warm, and we could scent her arousal.

  Take her!

  No, I thought back, nearly snarling at it in return. I won’t ruin this. We do this my way.

  Audrey’s pale face was painted silver in the diffused moonlight that came through our narrow window. Her hair was the color of blood in the low light. I tried not to think on that too much, or I’d lose what ground her soft hands had given me.

  I ran my hand over the long fall of her hair. Despite being unwashed and tangled, it was still beautiful. I wondered what it would look like after she had access to three squares a day, consistent sunshine, and shampoo.

  A vision danced tantalizingly before my eyes for a moment. Audrey on a familiar cliffside, very near my cave, her hair lifted by the wind, painting my grey skies with her fire. The phantom Audrey turned to face me, a smile on her face, the sun setting her aglow.

  I wanted it so badly I could taste it. My grip tightened on her hair, and she physically recoiled. Shame was a sick feeling in my stomach as I released my hand. I was scaring her. When would I stop doing that?

  “I’m sorry,” I muttered. “Maybe we shouldn’t–”

  “It’s fine,” she cut in. “Just…don’t grab my hair, okay?”

  I relaxed back onto the narrow bed, placing my hands very deliberately on either side of me. I wouldn’t touch her unless she asked.

  My resolve was immediately tested when Audrey licked her lips, setting them glistening. This woman had no clue just how delectable she appeared. I clenched my eyes shut. If I watched her, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to control myself.

  My other senses heightened to compensate for the lack of sight. I could hear the hitch of her breathing, though whether that indicated fear or excitement, I couldn’t tell. If I listened intently, I could hear the erratic thump of her heart. I concentrated on that, and that alone, to keep myself still. It was soothing somehow, to hear her heart beating in tempo with mine.

  She rolled my balls gently between her fingers, and I felt them tighten in response. I sucked in a breath. She experimentally ran one finger along the underside of my shaft, and I hardened even further.

  “Is this okay?” She whispered. “Maybe you could tell me what you like. I’ve never done this before.”

  “Neither have I,” I admitted.

  Her hand stilled, and I risked a glance, keeping my eyes only on her face.

  “You can’t be serious. You’re not a virgin, are you?”

  “No. I’ve had sex, but I’ve only had two girlfriends, and neither of them have done,” I gestured broadly to my lap, “this.”

  She appeared to be struggling not to laugh at me. “So, you’re a blowjob virgin?”

  “So are you.”

  “Ah, but I’m a lady,” she said primly. “Aren’t all guys supposed to demand head?”

  I felt vaguely offended on behalf of my gender. “There are a few decent guys out there, you know.”

  “Are you a decent guy, Luke?”

  The question caught me off guard. It was probably a joke, but I couldn’t help but ponder the question seriously. Was I a decent guy? My history even before being infected spoke for itself. I’d let my sister take the brunt of responsibility after our parents died. And worse, I’d let her get hurt on my watch. I’d let her take responsibility for the accident that had cost her the function of one of her legs.

  The fact that becoming a were-bear had given her the use of the leg back years later didn’t change the fact that it had been a shitty thing for me to do. The answer to that question was a resounding no.

  “I’m a monster,” I whispered.

  She began to fondle me again, not taking her eyes off of mine. “I’m not a good person either, just so you know.”

  I wanted to protest. She was one of the most decent women I’d ever come across. She was brave, strong, and sexy as hell. And, I was going to tell her so, until she completely stole my breath and sent the thought flying straight out of my head.

  She guided the head of my cock between her parted lips and into the warm velvet of her mouth. I moaned aloud. Every cell in my body ached to fuck her mouth, then lay her down and rut with her on the ground until she was limp and boneless with pleasure.

  I gripped the edges of the bed until they creaked. Still. Keep still, don’t scare her.

  Her soft, pink tongue glided over the head of my cock, sending electric spikes of pleasure through my groin. She bobbed her head experimentally, drawing me into her warm, silken heat before drawing away once more. Goosebumps erupted along my arms.

  She grew more confident with every sound she drew from me. My hips shifted as I fought the urge to thrust hard into her. She made a soft, pleased sound of her own as she licked away drops of precum. The sound set fire to my veins.

  She was mine. I had to have her. I would be nothing but a shell if she left me alone again.

  It was hard to believe her assertion that she’d never done anything like this before, because she was doing a superb job. She seemed to respond to my desires without prompting, as if they were scrawled clearly on my face.

  Her dexterous tongue swirled around me, sometimes lavishing attention on the head, other times licking along the underside of my cock carefully.

  The closer I came to climax, the more aware I became of the magic that wound its way through me. It was its own separate ecstasy. Could she feel it,
too? Was the tension as unbearable for her as it was for me?

  “I want…” I gritted from between my teeth. “To be inside of you.”

  Her mouth came off of me with a satisfying pop, and she looked up at me. Her eyes wore that glazed look of pleasure that accompanies good sex. “I want it, too.”

  The words seemed to surprise her. Had she never had a good experience with sex? Was that why she was afraid of me, afraid of men in general?

  “I want to give you pleasure,” I growled. She was going to have an abso-fucking-lutely amazing orgasm if I had anything to say about it.

  She bit her lip. “Could you wash your face?”

  Right. That was a problem, wasn’t it? I weighed my desire for safety against the roar of my libido. We were alone. The only one who might poke his nose in was Adner, who had already seen my face and hadn’t recognized me. So, I used the remainder of the water left in my canteen to wash my face.

  She nodded approvingly at me from the floor, examining my face intently. “Should we switch places?” she asked.

  “Not what I had in mind.” I pushed to my feet, and nearly swayed. God, she was good.

  I removed our fur cloaks from our bunks. We’d been using them as makeshift blankets when the temperature dropped from the usual cold to ‘holy fuckballs, it’s freezing’ during the night. The standard issue blankets we’d been given to use just didn’t cut it.

  I spread them out carefully. Stretched to their fullest, they covered most of the room. That was a testament to how dinky our quarters really were.

  I pressed her down into the warmth of the furs, carefully settling myself over her. I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers. That, at least, she didn’t seem to mind. I could taste the salt of myself on her tongue. It was a little weird, but not entirely unpleasant.

  I lavished kisses along her throat, trailing my mouth ever lower. She shivered at a rather sharp nip to her collarbone, but urged me forward when I paused to gauge the reaction.

  I skimmed her breasts with my fingertips, exploring the full roundness of them. I could see her nipples were hard even through the layers of fabric. She made a delightful, mewling sound as I pinched one aching bud between my fingertips.