“I think he chose you because I chose you,” Mike said.
She frowned. “What do you mean?”
“My bear. It chose you.”
She blinked up at him, feeling snowflakes gather in her lashes. “It ‘chose’ me?”
He stopped and turned to her, and she looked up into his face. It was the most serious she’d ever seen him.
“As soon as I saw you, Jess, my bear knew you were my mate. It reached out to me and let me know.” He grinned, just a bit. “It wasn’t real subtle about it.” Then he got kind of sheepish. “That’s why I positioned myself by the ladies’ restroom at the bar.”
She couldn’t help it. She laughed. “You what?”
“That’s right. I wanted you to notice me when you came out. You hadn’t even looked at me before. My bear demanded that we meet. And, er … well, mate.”
She stared at him. It was funny, but it also put a lump in her throat. “Mate … for life?”
He nodded again. “That’s right.”
She reached up and ran her fingers over his stubble-lined cheek. She could still feel the burr of the stubble against her cheek from earlier. It burned, but she liked it. Slowly, she started to draw her hand away, but he reached up and gently held it in place. He seemed to grow hotter, and the snow didn’t just melt on him now. It steamed off of him.
At last, though, she took her hand away.
“What does this have to do with Bryce?” she said.
“I think he sensed that my bear chose you,” Mike said. “He wanted to take you away from me. Take my mate away from me.”
That hit her like a blow to the stomach. Feeling weak, she said, “So he … he wanted you to never have a mate?”
“I think so. Yes.”
“But that means he would be stuck with someone who didn’t love him and was fated to be the mate of another. He was willing to have an unloving wife, or mate, or whatever, just to take your true mate away.” She placed a hand over her heart, feeling its rapid beat. “The hate that that would take … I can’t believe it, Mike.”
“Believe it. Like I said, lion shifters and bear shifters are enemies from way back. And some clans are raised steeped in the old ways. The old hates. Rivalries, feuds, wars. Some young shifters are brainwashed from birth to hate whoever their parents or clans hated most. Bryce must come from a clan that hates bear shifters … a lot.”
“A hell of a lot.”
“Yeah.”
“He’s a fanatic.”
“Likely,” Mike said.
“But that means he didn’t want to rape me. He actually wanted me for a mate.”
“To keep me from having you. Right.”
“Was it to keep you from having kids? Or cubs, I guess? Is he trying to do his part to stop bear shifters from breeding?”
“I don’t know. I guess.”
She sank down on a stump. “But how could he have hoped to keep me? As a mate? I mean, if I wasn’t a prisoner, how could he have thought I’d stay?”
“He would have taken you far away where you couldn’t leave, and over time you would have been forced to get to know him and his people. He probably would have Turned you.”
“Made me … a lion shifter?” When Mike nodded again, she said, “Wow.” She studied him. “Can you make me a bear shifter?”
“If I laid the claiming mark on you, yes.”
She felt the back of her neck. “That’s usually done during, uh, while making love, right?”
He squatted before her, and she was impressed that he could maintain that position, and that he would do it just so that they could be at the same eye level. “Only if you want it,” he said, and his voice was surprisingly soft.
She stared into his blazing blue eyes, and flakes of snow fell between them. He started to reach toward her, but she hopped off the stump and moved a few feet away. Stamping her feet—it was cold—she said, “So what did you want to show me?”
He sighed.
“What?” she said, then appraised him suspiciously. “There is something, right? That wasn’t just a ruse to get me out here, was it?”
Amusement passed across his face. “No.” He stood. “Right this way, ma’am.”
She wasn’t sure if she liked him calling her "ma’am". He’s just trying to needle me, she thought. If so, though, it was working. Ma’am sounded so cold coming from him. She couldn’t stand him being cold to her, even if just in jest. She wanted … well … she wanted something more. A lot more.
Chapter 13
They continued on through the forest, and slowly the snow began to stop, then recede from the trees and ground around them. Jess looked around in amazement as the winter wonderland retreated, replaced by green trees and grass.
“How is this possible?” she said.
Mike only smiled.
“It’s almost like summer,” she said.
She’d been shivering, but now she quit. Sunlight poured down on her through the trees, warming her, and soon she felt beads of sweat pop out on her cheeks and forehead, and under her arms, too. If she didn’t watch out, she’d start to smell. Soon she’d have to take this jacket off. But that made no sense.
“This makes no sense,” she said.
“It makes all the sense in the world,” Mike said. “Well, one world, anyway. A different world.”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember when Connor talked about the Fae?”
“Vaguely …”
“Well, the Fae Lands connect to our world through various gateways. Humans can’t see them, but they’re there.”
She glanced around in wonder. “You mean … there’s a gateway to some fairy world around here?”
Something shone in his eyes—awe, amusement? She couldn’t tell. Maybe some of both.
“That’s right,” he said.
She looked all around, more critically this time. Then she gasped and pointed. What looked like fireflies danced and spun in a clearing not far away, maybe twenty yards through the trees. The light of the fireflies, or whatever they were, bathed the trees and bushes around them with glowing, swaying illumination. But the creatures didn’t move like fireflies. They danced and spun, flew and swept in intricate patterns. Sometimes their lights flashed in strange colors: purple, red, green, and more.
“Those are not fireflies,” she said, putting one hand to her mouth.
Mike came to stand beside her, one of his huge hands going around her shoulders. “No,” he said softly. “They’re not.”
“They’re … fairies?”
“Some of them. There are many kinds. Some look human, or at least can pass for human.”
She swallowed, suddenly dizzy. She felt like she were walking among the clouds. “Have you ever been over there? I mean, through the gateway?”
“I’ve never been to the Fae Lands. Some say that’s where the magic that makes shifters comes from. I’m not sure. But now you see why it’s so important that goodly shifters control this mountain.”
She thought about it. “You don’t want humans to find the gateway?”
“Or shifters with evil motives. As for humans, they can’t see it directly, but they can notice its effects: the lack of snow, the ‘fireflies’ and other things. Before we shifters came out of the den, they probably would have dismissed it, thought it was some random phenomenon. But now they would study it, probe it, maybe even find a way across. And the Fae wouldn’t like that.”
“What would happen?”
“I don’t know. Maybe war between this world and the other. Or maybe the Fae would seal access from one realm to the other. Cut off the flow of magic to this world.” He grimaced. “If that happened, it might affect shifters everywhere. Might even make us unable to Shift.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah.”
Again she looked around in amazement, and maybe even a little fear. War, she thought. Still, she could feel a charge in the air, like little crackles of electricity all along her skin, filling her up with an
ethereal glow. Magic, she thought. I’m feeling magic. It made her so giddy she wanted to throw her head back and laugh.
Sudden movement ahead made her pause. She saw something large moving through the forest ahead. Strangely, though, it didn’t fill her with fear. Curious, she moved forward, Mike at her side.
Ahead a shaft of sunlight shone down through the trees and illuminated the animal, if that’s what it was, in the brightest white. It entered a glade, and the sunbeams stroked white fur over long clean limbs and muscular shoulders. It was huge, and its fur was thicker and downier than Jess would have imagined. And the horn … it gleamed like lightning …
Jess gasped and clutched a hand over her mouth.
“Is that … is that … ?”
The unicorn, if that’s what it was, paused in the forest and turned to glance back at her and Mike. Their eyes locked, just for a moment, hers and the creature’s, and she felt something wash across her soul like the purest crest of sea foam. The creature dipped its head, as if acknowledging their presence, then turned and continued on, vanishing back into the forest.
Jess wheeled in astonishment to Mike. He looked as awed as she felt.
“That was a unicorn!” she said.
He passed a hand across his face. “There are plenty of strange things here. I think … I think we just saw the Guardian. I’ve heard legends of the being that guards the gateway. I’ve never seen it, but I think that was it.”
“Amazing …” She stepped forward cautiously, entering the treeless glade where the unicorn had just been standing. The air felt even more charged here, even more electric. The unicorn had been a being of power.
Mike came with her, moving like one in a dream.
She took a few deep breaths, letting her heartbeat slow. Softly, more under control now, she said, “So … just why did you bring me out here?”
One of his eyebrows half-rose, and the corner of his lip twisted up wryly. “Why do you think?”
“I asked you.”
He met her gaze firmly. “You wanted to know.”
“Is that all?”
“I …” His brows drew together, and he glanced away, then back to her, but when he looked back his eyes were sober. “I thought maybe …”
A shiver of nervousness ran through her. He was so serious. “Yes?”
“I thought maybe it was the secrets holding you back. Maybe if I shared them, opened my world to you, maybe it would, you know, break whatever barrier was reining you in.”
Now it was her turn to look away. She ran a hand over the top of her other arm in a nervous habit of hers. “It wasn’t the secrets, Mike. It was ... well, you know.”
“Andrew.”
“Yeah.” She craned her head again, looking up into his ruggedly handsome face with those piercing blue eyes that seemed to penetrate right to her core. She wanted to melt and dissolve in the light of those eyes. He really had opened himself up to her, showing her secrets forbidden to outsiders. Had he incurred any risk in bringing her here? Would the other bear shifters in his crew punish him? Suddenly she felt worry for him.
“They won’t go hard on you for bringing me here, will they?” she said.
He snorted. “Connor might bleed me, but I’ll bleed him back, you’d better be sure. He’ll have to think long and hard about that if that’s the way he wants to go. I challenged him once a few years ago. I lost, but it was close. I might could take him now.”
“But it would come to blood, if they found out.”
Mike didn’t deny it. “You don’t need to worry for me, Jess.” He reached out and traced a finger below her jaw, then cupped her face tenderly. His flesh was so warm that she shuddered. Instantly she felt herself grow wet.
His nostrils flared. “You want me.”
Damn his shifter nose. “Yes.”
“I want you, too.”
She could see his enormous shaft straining against his pants.
“I know,” she said, biting her lip.
Apparently thinking she was going to refuse him again, he started to draw his hand away from her face, but she reached up quickly and held it in place, just like he’d done with her. She also pressed herself against him, pushing her breasts against his lower chest. She could feel his cock shove against her belly. At the contact, it throbbed, she could feel it even through the denim, and her panties grew even wetter.
“Don’t toy with me,” he said, his voice rough.
“I’m not,” she said. “But this is just a one-time thing, okay? That’s the only way I can do this. It’s too soon for me to be with somebody, in a relationship, but … a fling … that would be okay.”
His face was unreadable. “I’m not signing any contract, Jess.” His voice was low and growly. “I’m not making any agreements. But I won’t press you to do anything you don’t want.”
She could feel his chest vibrate with a sort of purring, growling noise as he spoke. She thought he’d probably had to concentrate very hard to get those words out. Passion had taken him. His eyes glimmered, shifting hues of silver winking in them. His bear had risen inside him.
She thrust her hand underneath his shirt and felt his abs. His skin burned with an inner fire. The hardness of his eight-pack astonished her, and she ran her other hand under his shirt and spread her fingers across his stomach, feeling his thick slabs of muscle roll under her touch, quivering as she moved. She was doing that, driving him wild. At the sudden power she had over him, a tingle of joy sang through her.
His head bent to hers again, and his lips found hers and kissed her passionately, slowly. As he kissed her, he unzipped her jeans. He did this slowly, too, and she could feel his grin against her lips. He was making her wait for him. Damn him! She wanted him bad.
Her jeans fell around her ankles and she kicked them away. He yanked her sodden panties down part-way next and explored her sex with his thick, warm fingers. She moaned against him.
“You’re so hot,” she said.
“Bullshit,” he grumbled. “You’re burning me up.”
He rubbed a circle around her opening, then thrummed her clit with his finger. She gasped and twisted, so turned on she could barely concentrate on returning his kisses. His lips touched the corners of hers, then her cheek, then trailed down her jaw and the soft skin on her neck.
“Now,” she demanded, wriggling out of her panties completely and kicking them away.
“Now what?” he said, playing with her.
“Fuck me.”
He paused, then softly growled in her ear, “I’ll make love to you, woman. No less, or no deal.”
There was no time to argue about it. “Do it!”
He shoved a finger inside her, and she clutched at his bulging arms to steady herself. She had never felt like this with Andrew. The fire Mike lit inside her was all-consuming. The outside world faded away. There was only him, and her, and this enchanted, secret glade, the gateway to a magical world. Dimly she was aware of fireflies, or what looked like fireflies, buzzing around the periphery of their little clearing, casting their rainbow hues on tree and shrub and grass.
“They’re not … watching, are they?” she said, although at that point she wasn’t sure it even mattered. The pleasure was too intense, her need too great.
“No,” he said. He kissed a breast and sucked on her nipple until it stood so rigid she shuddered. The finger that was still inside her plunged deeper, and she could feel his thick knuckle as if it were a ridge on his cock. Moving slowly, he inserted another finger. She moaned again and writhed against him.
She leaned backwards, and he wrapped an arm around the small of her back, supporting her weight while she gave in to his touch. Her head rolled back, allowing him to kiss her neck and breasts at his will. Fire radiated up from her core.
“I want to touch you,” she said, and began unbuttoning his shirt. It took effort to concentrate enough to do this, but she was determined and soon she tugged his shirt over his head and tossed it to the grass where the unicorn had bee
n standing just moments before.
She kissed his sweaty abs, running her tongue over each of his ribbed muscles. She noticed scars there, and on his shoulders, maybe earned during the fight with the lion shifters or one of the countless battles bear shifters engaged in, and she grew even wetter. Sexy beast of a dominant warrior man, confident and badass and protective. When she moved to kiss his abs, his fingers slid out of her, and she groaned in longing.
“Yes,” she said. “Yes …”
She sank to her knees before him and unsnapped his jeans, then helped him step out of them. His cock popped up, huge and hard. She ran a hand down its length, cupped the balls gently and kissed the head, slurping up the single bead of cum that had welled up from inside.
He quivered and let out a sound that was half moan, half growl. She smiled in delight, tracing one of the veins in his shaft from the base to the tip, which was now growing another beautiful white pearl.
She reached for Mike’s hand and pulled him down with her to the ground, and he knelt on the soft grass of the sacred glade before her.
His cock looked awesome. Like, seriously awesome.
She slid her fingers down his abs toward his groin, loving the feel of that gently curved, firm angle between his navel and his downy pubic hair. She ran her fingers through the soft fluffy hair there, then made a circle around his hard, huge, ridged shaft. He groaned, and she smiled in delight. Bending forward, she took him into her mouth, tasting his salty sweetness. She relished the meaty feeling of him in her mouth, so huge and hard and ready to burst. Not yet, big boy, she thought. But that didn’t mean she was going to make it easy for him.
One of her hands found his balls again, taking her time now. They were huge and full of cum, and pressed tight up against him, and she squeezed him gently. He let out another growly sound, and his cock throbbed in her mouth. Another squirt of pre-cum oozed out, and she swallowed it around him. He seemed to love the feel of her swallowing, as his cock gave another titanic pulse. She slid her lips slowly down his shaft, then up, then up and down rapidly.
“Jess,” he groaned. “Stop … too much …”
Smiling naughtily, she released him from her mouth and ran her tongue up from the base of his shaft, all the way to the tip, then made a slow, languid circle around the head. Another bead of pre-cum welled there, and she licked it off. It was almost like a game, licking the cum-beads up as soon as they appeared. How many could she lick up before she won the prize?
Bear Love Page 7
