Dana Marie Bell - [Halle Shifters 01]

by Bear Necessities (lit)

  His hand stopped. His chin dropped down onto her shoulder. The leer had turned into a wide grin. “That’s because he smells something delicious.” He grabbed hold of her hand and dragged it back to his hard flesh. “Have I mentioned he loves to be petted?”

  She curled her hand around his shaft, but refused to be coaxed closer to the head of his cock. “Are you sure it’s safe? He’s drooling an awful lot. Has he had his shots?”

  She giggled madly when he picked her up and pinned her against the wall. “Drooling?” He palmed her thighs, spreading her wide. She didn’t fight him. She wanted this just as much as he did. She wrapped her legs around his waist, let her heels rest on the top of his truly amazing ass. “I’ll show you drooling, you little witch.”

  She wasn’t afraid of him. How could she be? He was smiling down at her, his hazel eyes gleaming with laughter and something else, something it was too soon to put a name to. At the most, she was willing to call it affection. It was a good start, one they could build on.

  An even better start was when he began to kiss her, the minty taste of his toothpaste mingling with his own heady flavor. His palm slid down her body. His fingers paused at her nipple ring, twisted it until she was gasping into his mouth. Tabby tightened her legs and tilted her hips, an invitation he accepted. His hand wandered south again, curled around her pussy until his fingers were stroking her clit in easy circles. He slid his cock between the wet folds of her pussy, teased her until she was damn near ready to beg. “Alex?”

  “Tell me you want me.”

  She gulped. His eyes were bleeding to brown, his fangs descending. The mark on her neck throbbed in time with her clit. “I want you, Alex.”

  The head of his cock slid home, stretching her wide. His lips brushed against hers, kept them in an almost-there kiss. He ignored her attempts to deepen it, to bring him into her mouth the way he’d entered her body. He rocked them together with lazy motions, their gazes locked together. It was a coupling completely unlike what they’d done the night before. Last night had been about staking a primal claim on each other.

  This was…something else. Something she hadn’t known was possible. The hurried fucking she’d done with her teenage sweetheart, the one-night stand she’d had since rejoining the human race, hadn’t prepared her for making love with Alex.

  She clenched around him. She understood what this sweet, lazy fucking was. This was just as much a claim on her as the other, but where last night had been about her body, this morning was about her heart.

  His lips pursed and he took the kiss his mouth had promised. The hot water beat down on his back. His buttocks flexed beneath her heels as he thrust over and over, the sweet slide dragging her closer and closer to orgasm. His hand left her pussy to curl around her hip, the strength of his hold almost bruising. “Tabby,” he breathed into her. His eyes closed and she knew he was close.

  She wanted, needed to come with him. Her hand reached down and took off where his had left off, stroking herself. She was so damn close. “Alex. Bite me. Please.”

  His eyes flew open. His chin brushed against hers, his mouth nipping its way down to her shoulder. She felt her own fangs descend and knew she’d mark him when they came.

  His teeth pierced her, throwing her into her orgasm. He groaned as she bit into him, marking him once more. She rode his cock and the never-ending orgasm that flowed through them both.

  They were both quivering at the end. Less intense than last night, it was nonetheless just as profound. She’d never had an orgasm last that long before, the sweet flood of pleasure going on and on that way.

  She wanted that again, that feeling of belonging.

  She licked his wound closed. Her head dropped back against the tiles. The only thing she wanted to do was crawl right back into the bed in the other room, wrapped up in her mate.

  He lifted his head from her shoulder, a thin line of blood trickling down her chest. The wound was already closing. He rested his forehead against hers, his lips taking hers in a gentle kiss. “Good morning.”

  She smiled. “Yes indeed.”

  His answering smile matched hers.

  Bunny walked into the hospital, still torn about leaving Tabby with the other girls at Living Art. She’d insisted on it, saying that she had to work and he had to check on Chloe. She was right, damn it. He almost called his father to ask him to go protect his mate, but with Chloe still unconscious and her attacker still on the loose, there was no way he could divide his family’s attention that way. He frowned. Maybe he could enlist Julian or some of the Pumas to keep a surreptitious eye on the place for him. But first he needed to know how his little cousin was doing before he went to see Sheriff Anderson.

  That part of his day he hadn’t discussed with his mate. He had every intention of finding out just who the fuck Gary was and what kind of a threat he represented to Tabby. If he found out the fucker was the one who’d hurt his mate, Halle would be short one asshole. There would be nothing that could stop him from ripping Gary apart.

  He entered Chloe’s hospital room to find Ryan, his father, Aunt Laura and Uncle Steve already there. “How is she?”

  Aunt Laura looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks, her eyes red-rimmed and weary. “No change. She won’t wake up, damn it, and I’m at my wits’ end.”

  Uncle Steve placed his hand on his mate’s shoulder, his own expression full of fear and grief. “She could wake up at any minute, sweetheart.”

  “Then she needs to.” The determination in Aunt Laura’s voice came as no surprise. The tiny Fox female had to be strong, surrounded as she was by Bears. “Dr. Howard suggested we find something to stimulate her with. Can you think of anything that might trigger a response?”

  He sighed. “No, I…” He blinked. “Wait.” The sheriff had said something the first time they met, when Bunny was still shocked over finding his mate.

  Mate.

  “She has a mate.”

  The uproar that followed was loud. “What?” Uncle Steve’s voice was full of hope.

  “Since when?” Ryan bellowed.

  “Is it Sheriff Anderson?” Aunt Laura asked. She stood, somehow towering over the men in the room, though she barely topped five foot three.

  “She knows who it is, but from her scent I’d say she hasn’t claimed him yet. And no, it’s not Anderson. The man already has a mate.” Bunny pulled out his cell phone. Right after the attack on Chloe, he’d programmed Dr. Howard’s number into it. He knew Dr. Howard had Anderson’s phone number, and Bunny needed it. “Let me make some calls, see what I can find out. Maybe if we get her mate in here it will be just what she needs.”

  And maybe he could get some of his own questions answered while he had the sheriff here.

  “Speaking of mates, how’s yours?”

  Bunny grimaced. “She got attacked yesterday.”

  “What?”

  “By who?”

  The family chorus of outrage was strangely soothing. “I have no idea.” He breathed deep, afraid he would accidentally shatter the phone in his hands. “By the time I got to the shop, she was on the ground, a lump on the back of her fucking head.”

  Ryan’s hand landed on his shoulder. “Do you need help?”

  He stared at his cousin, knowing what Ryan was offering and what it would do to them both if Bunny took him up on it. One of the ways they sometimes blew off steam was by fighting each other. The way Bunny was feeling, if he took Ryan up on that offer, one or both of them would be lying in the bed next to Chloe’s. He shook his head. “Nah. I’ll make sure to do an extra twenty minutes of yoga.”

  Ryan rolled his eyes. “You have to get over that some day.”

  Bunny shrugged, uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was going. “I need to call the sheriff.”

  “You need to remember you were sixteen when it happened. Let it go, Alex.”

  The soothing sound of his father’s voice did nothing to help. “I have. I make sure it’s never going to happen again.” Ne
arly killing someone because you’d lost your temper was a sure-fire way to teach you how to control yourself. He’d done everything in his power to see to it he’d never hurt another living soul.

  Still, there were times when he longed to roughhouse with his cousins without the fear that he’d hurt them. He was large and strong in his human form, larger than all of his relatives, except for his father. He was even more so in his Bear form. And even his father didn’t have the depth of rage Bunny had learned to conquer. His father was one of the most even-tempered men he knew.

  Bunny dialed the phone. If he had his way, he’d never fight again. He couldn’t live with the consequences if he did.

  “Are you sure you’re all right?”

  Tabby shoved Cyn’s hands away from her head. “I’m fine, okay?”

  “No headache?”

  “Other than the one you’re giving me? No.” She snapped on the rubber gloves and smiled weakly at her nervous client. If Cyn didn’t knock it off, Tabby was going to lose her customer.

  Cyn glared at her. “Fine. I’ll let it go for now.” She smiled down at the nervous college boy. “So, what are we having done today?”

  The boy gulped. If he didn’t calm down, he was going to shake apart from nerves. “Um, I want a wolf, a timber wolf.” He held out a picture. “Just like this.”

  Tabby frowned down at the wolf. It looked familiar. “Where did you get this?”

  “Gary gave it to me.”

  Tabby put the picture down on the counter and leaned back with a sigh. “Why did Gary tell you to get a wolf tattoo?”

  The boy shook some more. “He said it was cool.”

  This kid is what, eighteen? What the fuck is Gary up to? She took a sniff. Nope, he’s human. “Do you like wolves?”

  The boy nodded eagerly. “Oh yeah. I contribute to a bunch of charities trying to save endangered species and their habitats.”

  Her brows rose. He didn’t look like he had the money for an Egg McMuffin, let alone donations to charity. “Where are you from?”

  “Ph-Philadelphia.”

  She stroked a finger down his arm, trying to calm him down. “Okay,” she glanced at the form he’d filled out, “Tim.” How do I explain to you that Gary wants his own ugly face tattooed onto your body? Talk about claiming someone! “If you had a choice, what tattoo would you get?” She held up a hand when he opened his mouth to speak. “Remember, whatever I ink in will be on your body forever. I mean old and wrinkly forever. They’ve found intact tattoos on mummies. So make sure it’s what you want before I do this, okay?”

  “What about Gary? He said I couldn’t join his fraternity without it.”

  She nearly growled. Son of a bitch. “Did he give you the money for the tattoo?” She’d already explained that she charged by the hour, and how much. The complex tattoo she’d have to make from the picture would wind up costing him almost three hundred dollars.

  “No.”

  “Are you paying for it?”

  “Yes.”

  She sighed and decided to fill this poor kid in before he became a Wolf snack. “Gary isn’t the nicest person in the world, Tim.”

  Tim scowled. “He’s been very nice to me.”

  “Yeah, well, he’s been less than nice to me.” She fingered the picture again, wondering how to get through to this poor guy. “Gary’s threatened me more than once. He’s egged the shop. We’ve had to call the cops on him a few times.” She frowned. “Did Gary tell you to come here for the tattoo?”

  Tim shook his head. “No, he told me to go to the place on Fifth.” Tabby exchanged a glance with Cyn. That place was a dive. “But I asked around. A lot of people told me you guys were the best, and that your prices were fair.”

  That explained a lot. No way was she letting this kid out of here with Gary’s mug a permanent fixture on his body. “If I pick up that phone there and call Sheriff Anderson, will you listen to him about Gary?”

  He gulped nervously. “The cops? Why would you call the cops?”

  “We’ve had to call them out because Gary won’t leave us alone.”

  He bit his lip and frowned, obviously thinking.

  She picked up the phone and handed it to him, rattling off the number for the police station. C’mon, Tim, make the right decision.

  His expression cleared. He was familiar with the phone number, which raised a whole host of other questions she didn’t have the right to ask. “Can I take another look around the shop, please?”

  She smiled and nodded, getting up off the swivel stool she sat on when she worked. “Sure thing, Tim.”

  She watched him walk with a bit more confidence into the front of the shop.

  “Good job.”

  “Thanks.”

  “What made you question him?”

  She picked up the picture of the wolf and showed it to Cyn. She could hear the murmur of voices and knew that Glory was talking to Tim. She would ease his fears better than anyone else. “That’s Gary as a wolf.”

  Cyn whistled. “Damn. Is the little bastard building a club or something?”

  Tabby jerked. Could he be trying to build a Pack? She took another look at Tim.

  Damn if the boy didn’t have Omega written all over him, and not in a good way. “Fuck.” There was no law against changing a human against their will. If there was, more than one mate would be in big trouble, including the current Halle Pride Alpha. But a prick like Gary with a Pack of handpicked assholes? “That would be bad.”

  “I’ve decided.” They turned to find Tim standing there, a smile on his face. Glory stood next to him. She winked at Tabby. “I want this one.” He held up a piece of flash.

  Tabby looked down at the stylized dragon and grinned. “Good choice.”

  She set up the inks, pleased that Tim had relaxed. She began the tattoo and did her best to hold back the smirk.

  Gary was going to shit a brick when he saw it. She just hoped Tim would be protected. She made a mental note to let Gabe know all about Tim. If anyone could protect the boy, it would be a Hunter like Gabe. Gary didn’t know what train was about to hit his pompous ass, but he was definitely pissing on the tracks.

  She hoped it hurt. A lot.

  Bunny stood as the sheriff entered Chloe’s room. The man’s eyes went immediately to Chloe. He didn’t even try to hide his wince. “Still no change?”

  Bunny shook his head, watching closely. The sheriff approached Chloe’s bed. He took one of her pale hands into his and bent down, his hat nearly falling off. He grabbed it before it could land on Chloe’s face. “Hey, little vixen. You need to wake up now. Sarah’s threatening to bake cookies, and you know how she is in the kitchen.”

  There was no response, not that Bunny had expected to see one.

  “Do you know who my daughter’s mate is?”

  Anderson lifted his head and stared at Aunt Laura. He nodded. “Yeah. I know who he is.”

  “And?”

  He straightened up and let go of Chloe’s hand. “He’s not in town right now. Sarah called him and let him know what’s going on. He told her he’d be back as soon as he could.” Anderson shifted, looking uncomfortable. “There are a few things you should know. First, he doesn’t know about us. He’s human.”

  They all nodded. Bunny’s mother had been human, and the stories about how his father had cornered and claimed his mate still had the power to reduce grown men to giggles. The fact that Barbra Bunsun had every intention of being caught only added to the joy of the story.

  Still, everyone knew you had to be careful when claiming a human mate. Not everyone would respond well to finding themselves furry. In the past, there had been those who had attacked their shifter mates, thinking them possessed by the devil.

  “Second, he had the mistaken impression that Chloe and I were dating.”

  Bunny folded his arms across his chest and snarled. Next to him, Ryan growled. They, too, had thought the sheriff and Chloe were dating. The way Chloe spoken about him, the bracelet he’d given he
r for Christmas with the little cats and foxes on it, had all said girlfriend as far as the Bunsun-Williamses were concerned. Hell, as far as he knew Ryan still thought it, despite being told Chloe had a mate somewhere out there.

  Anderson’s hands went up. “We weren’t. Damn it. My mate still gives me fits about that.” He rolled his eyes. “But Jim blames both of us. The third problem is he thinks Chloe’s too young for him. He even told her as much.”

  “Will he come for her?”

  Aunt Laura was still staring at Anderson, her gaze boring into him.

  Anderson nodded. “I think he will. Sarah says he loves Chloe, he just needs to deal with his issues. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s here before morning.”

  “How would Sarah know this?”

  Anderson’s whole face softened. “My mate is the Omega of the Halle Pride.”

  Bunny was confused. As the Omega, Anderson’s mate should have known exactly how the man felt, both about her and about Chloe. The way he understood it, Omegas were the emotional lynchpin of whatever Pride or Pack they belonged to. How could there have been any confusion over which one he wanted? There was no way, once he met his mate, that he could confuse it for anything but the mate bond. Had he met his Sarah after he’d begun dating Chloe, or had it been some sort of cosmic misunderstanding? Unfortunately Bunny didn’t feel he had the right to ask the sheriff that question. He barely knew the man, after all, and only trusted him because he’d helped Tabby.

  “Any idea who did this to my daughter?” Uncle Steve’s voice was low and threatening. His hand reached out and stroked Chloe’s hair.

  “I have some theories, but until I’m sure, I’m not going to say anything. Don’t ask me, I won’t tell you.”

  And that was when Bunny realized exactly what sort of man stood in front of them. Anderson radiated an aura of power he’d only felt once before. “You’re a Hunter.”