“Hey, I’m sorry about earlier,” he said. “I didn’t mean to get angry. I’ve just been... very emotional lately.”
Jules nodded, her smile fading.
“You’re right, you know,” Carter continued. “You can’t be forced to be our mate. The choice is yours, whether you want to accept us or not. I didn’t mean to imply that you have no say in the matter.”
Jules sighed, her gaze settling on the trees and the wilderness ahead. “I don’t think any of us have any say in the matter.”
Carter frowned.
“It sounds like a nice, fun little—” she paused, searching for the words. Her eyes flicked upwards. “Fairy tale.”
Carter opened his mouth to object, but Jules cut him off. “But life isn’t a fairy tale, Carter. At least not for me. I don’t know if fate exists or not. But if it does, I know what my fate is. I know where I’m headed.”
He furrowed his brows. “It doesn’t have to be like that, Jules.”
Finally she dragged her eyes to meet his, and his heart grew heavy with longing as he lost himself in the shimmering emerald. “What do you mean?”
He realized he was opening a can of worms, and Max would never allow him to say this if he were standing there. But fuck it, Max wasn’t there to shut him down and control the conversation. “We don’t have to turn you in, Jules. You can just stay with us. We’ll protect you. Keep you hidden. Figure out some way to deal with all this.”
Jules’s eyes widened with hope, but her face was shadowed by disbelief. “But didn’t Max say that—”
Carter shrugged. “Max doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He doesn’t want to give in to his bear because he’s scared of getting hurt. He tries to seem like the responsible one, the rational one. But in reality, he’s lost. He has no anchor. If you leave, I don’t think he’ll ever be happy.”
Her plump, delicate lips parted as she took in Carter’s words. He wanted nothing more than to press his mouth against hers. He wasn’t good with words, but he could tell her everything she needed to know through his kiss, and the touch of his skin against hers. It took all his will power to fight against the primal urges inside him.
“I can’t do that to you guys,” she said softly, regret flashing in her eyes. “I can’t ask you to break the law for me.”
Carter growled. “Human laws are not the only ones that exist on this earth. To be denied our mate is breaking the law, too. Nature’s law. We belong to each other, Jules. Nothing should ever come between us.”
His eyes searched hers. They were glossy and conflicted, but behind the clouds grew a flame of want. Carter’s belly fluttered with deep longing, his bear growling, yearning to touch her, to make her his again.
She turned away, sewing her brows together with worry. “Nick’s people will come after us. As soon as they find out about Ansell. We’ll all be in danger.”
Carter growled. “I’ll take them all on. I’ll rip them all to shreds.”
“But Max nearly died because of—”
“Well, to be fair, your bullet weakened him,” Carter said. “Made him prime to be finished off.”
Jules’s face darkened. She closed her mouth and looked at the ground.
Carter grimaced, sensing her pain, and realized he probably shouldn’t have said that. He wrapped a heavy arm around her shoulders and squeezed gently. Jules audibly gasped and winced, inching away from him. He let his arm drop behind her, defeated.
“Look,” she said, barely above a whisper, eyes averted. “I can’t. I can’t deal with all of this right now.”
“Jules,” he pleaded, but he didn’t know what to say.
She dragged hesitant eyes to his, her long black hair curtaining most of her gaze. “I just… I need time. I need space.”
She sprang to her feet and disappeared inside, the screen door clanking behind her. Carter crossed his arms over his knees and emitted a low, frustrated growl. Why did everything have to be so complicated? Why couldn’t they just be with each other, happily? Dread rumbled inside him like a brewing storm cloud. He realized—their problems didn’t entirely stem from out there, in the physical world. On top of the law and the gangsters pursuing them, there existed another obstacle inside Jules herself. She was battling something. A war brewed in her soul. And she would have to overcome it before she could truly allow herself to become their mate.
25
Max took a long swig of beer. He rested his elbows on the kitchen counter, eyes never moving from Jules’s closed bedroom door. It was dark now and crickets chirped outside. Carter grunted from his seat on their couch, a beer resting on his thigh as he watched a pre-season football game on their grainy, outdated TV set. The crowd roared from the tinny speakers as the quarterback made a successful pass to the end-zone.
“Fuck yeah!” Carter hollered, jerking upright, plunging a fist into the air triumphantly.
“Shhh, keep it down, Carter!” Max admonished. “Jules is sleeping.”
Carter covered his mouth sheepishly. “Sorry.”
Max dragged himself from the kitchen and slumped heavily onto the couch. “I don’t know how you can be so jovial.” "Jovial?” Carter questioned. “I’m not. I’m pensive, just like you are. But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the game.”
Max raised an eyebrow. “It seems suspicious to me.”
Carter brought his beer to his lips and took a long chug. “Strong people choose to remain optimistic even in the face of great challenges.”
A twinge of anger hit Max’s nerve. “Strong people?”
Carter gave him a cautious sidelong glance. “That’s not what I meant.”
Max sighed. “Dammit, Carter. This isn’t going to end well, you know that?”
“No, we don’t know that.”
“There is no way it’ll—” Max stopped. He pursed his lips, mind flattened by dull, frustrated anger. “Oh. Right. You’re convinced we’re just gonna keep her, then? You think we’ll just stow her away forever. The law be damned.”
Carter’s brows laced together, all joviality disappearing. He spoke low, his voice sizzling with fury. “I don’t know what kind of a grizzly would willingly turn over his mate to the law and condemn her to years in prison.”
Max huffed, clenching his fingers tight around his beer bottle, condensation liquefying in cold rivulets on his skin. He spoke through clenched teeth, hissing every word. “Don’t you dare question my love for her.”
Carter bounded to his feet suddenly, flinging his arms open, beer splashing from his bottle on to the shaggy brown rug. “If you love her, then show her. Words don’t mean shit. Only actions do. Show her your devotion by helping her. Let her know that you’ll care for her. Protect her. You’ll stand up against the law, against all the world’s armies just to keep her safe!”
Max looked down at the floor, lips pursed. He simmered.
“Jules needs us now more than ever,” Carter said, quieting. “Let’s quit it with this indecisive bullshit. Let’s make a stand. She’s ours and she always will be.”
Carter’s eyes glimmered with resolve and fool-hardy determinism. Max wanted to be inspired by his call to action. He wanted to leap to his feet, burst into Jules’s room and confess his undying love her, and vow to always protect her. But he couldn’t. Because he just wasn’t convinced. Being with her felt right, but everything else felt very wrong. His heart weighed heavy with a sense of impending doom.
“Did you ever consider,” Max said quietly, simmering, “that fate brought us with her for a reason. We were never meant to be with her right now. If we interrupt fate’s plans, something else will get in the way. Maybe Nick’s people will take her from us. Maybe she’ll leave on her own.”
Carter sighed, his chest rising and falling under his flannel shirt. “Why would she do that?”
Max didn’t answer, not moving his eyes from the wet beer spot on the rug.
Carter chugged the rest of his bottle and sat the empty on top of the TV. “Don’t do this,” he said.
“I’m sick of dealing with your insecurities. Jules loves us. She wants to be with us. She’s our mate and she knows it. But she thinks she deserves prison. She thinks she’s not worthy of love. Kinda like you, now that I think about it.”
Max flicked his eyes up, meeting Carter’s and sharing a glimmer of recognition. He shook his head and quickly looked away, pursing his lips in defiance. “I just see the world how it really is, Carter.”
“You make your own luck. You don’t let the world happen to you. You have to fight for what you want.”
“Then fate doesn’t exist?”
“It does. But we still have free will.”
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“We have to do the work to achieve the ends we want.”
Max took a long swig of his beer and leaned forward, preparing himself for another long, alcohol-fueled debate. “What you’re saying doesn’t work, logically. We can’t change whatever fate decrees. It is what it is. If it wasn’t, Zariah wouldn’t be able to foretell—”
“Zariah doesn’t know anything!” Carter spat. “For all we know, she’s a total fraud. She’s been faking it for years, all to get attention. Apparently having natural healing abilities didn’t make her special enough, so she had to fabricate—”
“Way to stand up for your sister,” Max said, rolling his eyes.
“She’s never been a good sis—” Carter’s voice trailed off, his eyes fixed towards the hallway.
Max glanced over to see Jules standing outside her bedroom door. Her eyes were wide, surveying the scene, her face veiled by caution and hesitation. Anxiety clenched in his gut. How much of their conversation had she heard? All of it?
“Hey, Jules,” Carter greeted with a sheepish wave.
She grasped her arm and bit her bottom lip, the simple gesture sending waves of longing through Max. “H-hey.”
“Sorry if we woke you,” Carter said apologetically. “Bears aren’t the best at keeping the volume down.”
“I noticed.”
Jules’s eyes locked with Max. Searing heat blasted into his soul.
“Hey, you want a beer?” Carter asked.
Jules looked away and cleared her throat. “No, actually. I was wondering if I could get cleaned up. Take a shower or a bath.”
Carter smiled, features softening, all the previous anger of he & Max’s heated exchange dropping completely. “Absolutely. It’s just down here. Let me show you.”
Carter brushed his hand softly against her arm as he led her down the hallway, Jules flinching slightly at his touch.
Max blinked, uncertain what to think. He took a long swig of beer, soothing his suddenly dry mouth and trying to swallow down his growing tortured indecision.
The tiny bathroom quickly filled with steam as hot jets of water rocketed from the shower head. Jules peeled off her dirty clothes piece by piece. The soft, expensive fabric that Ansell had given her was smudged with dirt and blood. She shuddered as her bare nipples hit the steamy air, hardening immediately. She flinched as she stepped into the shower, the heat of the water shocking her system. But she settled, and soon began reveling in the delicious heat, the water feeling so fresh against her skin.
She ran her hands over her curves, washing away the dirt.
Her eyes widened when she saw women’s shampoo and conditioner, and a full bottle of pomegranate body wash. Why on earth would two manly shifters have women’s products? Then she remembered Max’s trip to the grocery store, and warmed. He’d thought of her.
Her heart stirred, yet her mind was heavy and tortured. She’d heard everything. Carter was passionate about keeping her safe. The way he spoke about her with such unbridled love and determination sent warm tendrils through her soul. He was a passionate man, totally confident in his own feelings. He knew exactly what he wanted and he was willing to fight to the death for it. For her.
She thrummed with need and want. After everything she’d been through, she wanted nothing more than to collapse into his arms, accept him inside her, lean on him for strength. She was weak, and so tired of pretending to be strong. She didn’t know how much more of it she could stand.
Max loved her too. But his voice was pained. Conflicted. Carter said that Max thought he didn’t deserve love. What did Carter mean by that? She remembered the comment Carter had made the first night she’d met them. He said Max has trust issues.
Was Max not confident in her? Was he afraid she’d leave?
She winced. He definitely had a point. She’d lied. Ran away. Hell, she’d shot him and left him for dead on the forest floor. He should have no reason to trust her. None at all. On top of all that, she was a fugitive and a criminal. She wasn’t mate material.
Jules lathered the shampoo into her long black hair, massaging her scalp with her fingers.
She didn’t know what to do.
Her mind drifted off, lost in thought. Minutes later she caught herself and realized she should probably get out. The air was heavy and suffocating with humidity. She turned the taps off and climbed out, wrapping herself in a thick white cotton towel. She squeezed the water out of her hair and patted the moisture off her body, running the towel up and down her curves. She glanced down at the dirty clothes and grimaced. Those were Ansell’s clothes. She didn’t want to touch them again, plus she hated the thought of putting dirty clothes on her squeaky-clean body.
She looked at her reflection in the mirror and frowned. She couldn’t see herself through the fog. Jules huffed. Heart beating, she stepped out of the bathroom and poked her head out. She could hear their voices murmuring incoherently from the living room. Apparently they’d learned their lesson to keep their voices low. She stepped down the hallway gingerly until she emerged. Two sets of eyes immediately latched onto her.
Carter and Max stared at her, heat simmering in the air between them. A pool of desire welled between her legs, her stomach clenching.
“Uh,” she croaked. “I was hoping I could borrow some clothes. Like, just a t-shirt and some boxers? The clothes I had on are so dirty, and plus they belong to Ansell and I don’t really want to—”
Carter leapt off the couch and bounded down the hall, wind whipping her face as he passed. He returned a few seconds later, white t-shirt and boxers in hand. He stretched out his arm to hand them to her. She smiled, her eyes meeting the vast blue of his, desire sparking inside her. She felt like she could just fall into those eyes. Drown in them.
She went to grab the clothes and her hand landed on his. A miniature explosion went off deep inside, sparks flying, fire twisting, heat igniting. Her breath hitched, and she couldn’t look away. An unseen force reached out and gripped her heart, magnetizing her to the golden-haired panting brute. The blue of his eyes washed over her like a cleansing rain.
Carter looked puzzled but drawn to her. He closed the distance between them, the heat of his body bristling every little hair on her goose-bumped skin. He approached like a rising tide, overtaking her and short-circuiting her brain, drowning her in the oceanic blue of his determined eyes.
She felt a tug on her arm and suddenly she was pressed, body to body, against his hard form. He leaned down and crashed his mouth into hers.
Her knees trembled, heart tumbling in her chest like it was caught in a spin cycle. She opened her mouth, welcoming him, and he pressed rough calloused fingers against the softness of her cheek as he entered her mouth. He was hot and wet, his tongue both affectionate and demanding.
She moaned, wrapping both arms around his core, massaging his lower back. The bath towel crumpled down slightly, revealing her breasts.
A voice drifted into her awareness, but it sounded a million miles away. The voice grew louder and more urgent.
“Carter! What are you doing?”
Jules felt another presence approach. She opened her eyes and was met with the sight of Max, whose dark, disgruntled face softened, eyes widening as his gaze landed on her bare breasts. His mouth dropped, lips parting, a low growl rumbling from his throat
.
Carter broke the kiss reluctantly to look over at Max. Max clamped his mouth obstinately, clearing his throat. “Carter, I don’t think this is a good idea.”
Without conscious input from her mind, her hand shot out and found Max’s. She laced her fingers into his, his touch igniting another deep well of passion inside her. His eyes met hers. He looked bewildered, face knotted with conflict. Dark silver gray rolled and swirled in his pupils, like a storm cloud brewing, fueled by dark desires.
She stepped back, Carter following, and tugged Max’s hand forward. She stepped back again and again until her back hit her bedroom door. She pushed it open and dragged them both inside.
26
Carter’s cock swelled heavily as she pulled him into the dark bedroom. The bed met the back of her knees and she fell back, splaying on the mattress. Carter fell over her with a groan, pressing his erection into her thigh as he covered her mouth with kisses again.
God, he needed her so bad. He knew this moment was bound to come. No matter how complicated their situation was, he knew they wouldn’t be able to keep their hands off each other for long. The force of nature that drew them together was so powerful, fighting against it was as pointless as fighting against gravity.
The mattress creaked as it heaved under Max’s weight. He settled next to them, watching. Carter broke from her mouth and left a trail of kisses down her throat. He leaned back and pulled away the towel, revealing Jules’s round curves. A slant of moonlight beamed down on her from the tiny window, illuminating her skin in a crisp milky glow. Max shuddered and leaned down, pressing his own lips to her mouth while Carter continued his trail of kisses down, down, down her body. Her body tensed as he journeyed downward, over her stomach and the soft skin between her hips.
She moaned, a shiver rolling through her body. Carter ran his hands up and down her smooth thighs, stopping to squeeze a bit of flesh. A hungry grumble escaped his throat as his cock thumped in fervid desperation, trapped in his pants. He ventured lower, flicking his eyes up to see Max drinking from her thirsty mouth, a hand fingering a stiff peak of pink nipple, rolling it between his fingers.
Safe with Her Bears Page 14
