Mating Instinct (Morgan Clan Bears, Book 2)

by Theresa Hissong

  “It’s very nice to meet you, Ada,” Gaia replied, holding out her hand. Rex relaxed when Ada shook her hand and made pleasantries. “What will you have today?”

  “Hamburger and fries, please,” Ada said, not even looking at the menu.

  “Same,” Rex mimicked, then tacked on, “But make it two.”

  He was hungry, and it was getting to be past noon. Rex wanted to spend as much time with Ada as he could. The beast inside him wanted to run again, but he wanted her by his side. The more time he was around her, the more her mating scent called to him. Touching her was still out of the picture, but he could do little things to make her smile.

  “Would you like to run with me tonight?” he asked as Gaia walked away.

  “I would like that,” Ada replied.

  “Our land is secure,” he promised, sensing a little fear coming from her. The scent tickled his nose, and he didn’t like it. “I won’t let anyone harm you.”

  “I don’t think they’ll find me,” she whispered, trying to keep her voice low. “My scent from Hickory Flat to here should all be washed away by now.”

  “You never know, Ada,” he warned. “They could show up anywhere.”

  “I’ve thought about that,” she agreed. “They have no rights to me, and they cannot force me to return to the clan.”

  “Do you think the male from Montana will try to claim you?” he half growled, covering up the sound with a cough when an elderly lady two tables over looked in their direction.

  “I don’t know,” she shrugged. “It’s been three months since he was supposed to arrive to take me back with him. I’m sure he doesn’t care. I was a purchase to him. Robert sold me like livestock, Rex. It’s no secret I would’ve been treated no better.”

  “The thought of you being sold makes me violent,” he replied, feeling his beast push at his skin. Ada’s eyes widened as his shifted. He closed them and took a deep breath, willing his beast to calm down. It took a few seconds before the bear rested in his mind and his eyes returned to his normal brown.

  Gaia arrived with their food and left them to eat. Ada hummed as she took the first bite. “Food tastes so much better after not having any for so long.”

  “Whatever you’re craving, I’ll make sure you have it,” he vowed.

  “Thank you,” she blushed. “I’m sorry. I get excited about the dumbest things.”

  “It’s not dumb,” he scolded, shaking his head. “You like what you like, and don’t ever apologize for being yourself.”

  “I don’t think I’ve ever really been myself,” she wondered aloud. “I’ve always done what was asked of me, and I stayed on the straight and narrow, hoping Robert wouldn’t kick me out of the clan because I had no family.”

  “I want you to find yourself, Ada,” Rex said, taking a bite of his burger. He watched as her eyes went dim while she escaped into her own head. He could almost see the wheels turning as she came up with a plan. “What’s going on in your head?”

  “I want to do something with my hands,” she giggled. “Well, I helped the elders with the gardens in our clan. I enjoyed it. I don’t think I want to do anything else.”

  “You’re going to fit in just fine,” he laughed.

  “Why?” she frowned. “I don’t understand.”

  “Oh, yeah,” he said, feeling like the biggest dumbass. “We never told you what we do.”

  “No, we haven’t gotten to that part,” she stated.

  “My brothers and I are farmers,” he announced. “We own about three thousand acres of farmland outside the city limits.”

  “Seriously?” she gasped, her eyes lighting up with his words. “I mean, I figured you had some type of farming business because of the machinery I saw outside of the barn when we left the house, but honestly, I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  “How sheltered were you, Ada?” he asked, wiping his hands on a napkin. “I mean, Hickory Flat is out in the middle of nowhere, but I know there are farms out that way. Did you ever leave your land?”

  “I wasn’t allowed to leave the land once I turned fifteen,” she scowled. “The men went to the store to gather supplies. We grew our own food, and what meat we did have was either hunted by the men or bought by Robert.”

  “You have never lived,” he mumbled. She must’ve heard him, because Ada nodded and went back to eating her food.

  “No, I don’t think I have,” she said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

  They finished their meal in silence, but Rex kept an eye on her while watching the diner. No one came in that looked suspicious. He needed to get a description of Robert O’Kelly so he and his brothers could be on alert.

  Ada didn’t think they’d come for her, but he was certain they would at some point. If Robert or the rest of the clan came for her so they could sell her to the man from Montana, Rex vowed to kill anyone who stepped foot on their property. Ada was his mate, and although they hadn’t touched, he already knew he’d die to keep her safe.

  By the time they reached the house, Ada couldn’t keep her eyes open. Rex came around the side of the truck and opened her door. She wanted to ask him to carry her in, but refrained. She was getting stronger, but it’d only been twenty-four hours since she’d been found.

  Ada had dreamed about finding a patient mate for many years. She was only twenty-four, but for the last four years, she’d been touched by many men. Thankfully, none of them were a match for her, and none of them had demanded sex from her.

  She was innocent in so many ways, but in others, she was an old soul. The elder females in the clan had tried to teach her the ways of a female shifter, telling her what to expect when she came of age and met her true mate.

  Ada blushed as she entered the house. Rex was a large male, and she was so tiny. She remembered Martha and Peggy teasing her that she had to have been the runt of the litter when she was born. They didn’t mean anything hurtful by it, and it was a little joke between them as she worked to help them with the garden.

  She knew how the mating worked, and had been told in detail one afternoon when she was eighteen and had finally worked up enough nerve to ask the older women. She and Anna Claire were shocked and a little embarrassed when the females informed them of what would happen when they touched their mates for the first time.

  With Ada, that talk had stuck with her. It’d turned into dreams where she would be saved from the O’Kelly clan by a prince on the back of a white horse. He would slay Robert and take her away to live in his castle. Well, little did she know, the prince never came, and the princess had to save her damn self.

  Rex was more than she ever dreamed of all those years ago, though. He may have not ridden in on a white horse to save her, but he had saved her in other ways. If they’d not found her in the woods, she would’ve starved to death.

  “You okay?” Rex asked as he came up behind her. He was so close, she could feel his warmth. She closed her eyes and nodded, walking off toward his quarters.

  “I’m going to shower,” she mumbled and tightened her hold on the bag that held all of her worldly belongings. Hell, it wasn’t like she had anything more than that when she was living with the O’Kelly clan. She was lucky to have clothes at all. When she’d fled, she only had what was on her back, and by the time she reached the fence marking the edge of the Morgan’s property, she had stripped off the torn material and shifted into her bear form to climb over.

  She felt Rex following her to his room. He didn’t speak as they walked, but she could scent him, and she knew his mating scent was because of his concern. You could learn a lot about a male shifter by his eye color and the scent he gave off when around his mate.

  Before she could open the door to his quarters, a large hand landed on the solid wood above her head. She immediately tucked her chin and took a deep breath. “Ada, you have to tell me what’s going on in your head. Otherwise, I will think the worst.”

  “I had a moment where I was feeling sorry for myself,” she said so
ftly, not moving from her position. God, he was so close to her. Rex’s lips were right at her ear, and she wanted to lean back. All she wanted to do was to feel his arms around her body, holding her tight. “It was only for a moment, Rex. I’m okay. Promise.”

  “What can I do?” he asked, his voice only above a whisper, but she had heard him. She heard the desperation in his voice.

  “I would give anything for you to hold me right now,” she mumbled and reached for the door handle, pushing it open wide. Rex cursed under his breath as she entered the room and walked straight into the adjoining bathroom to start her shower.

  “I would give anything to take away the pain in your heart, Ada,” he said as he stood in the doorway to the bathroom. “But I will not touch you until you are stronger. I’m an honorable male who respects a female. If I touched you right now and we completed a mating we know will happen, I would be no better than the male who bought you.”

  “I know,” she said, then closed the door.

  If she dwelled on what he had said, she’d be in tears. Instead, she turned the shower on as hot as it would go and stepped inside. When she looked down at her body, she was surprised to see her hips were a little thicker than the night before. The muscles in her thighs were a little more defined.

  She scrubbed her hair again, feeling a lot of her sadness and anxiety wash down the drain with the suds from the shampoo. By the time she had dried off and wrapped her hair in a towel, she was in better spirits.

  “Better?” Rex asked as she entered the living area of his quarters.

  “Yes, and I’m sorry,” she apologized.

  “No need to be sorry,” he replied, then turned for the small kitchenette. When he turned around, he was holding two coffee mugs in his hands. “Hot cocoa?”

  “With marshmallows?” she asked, hopeful.

  “Of course,” he chuckled and exaggerated an eye roll.

  She folded herself into the corner of the couch and took a sip while he turned on the television. They decided on another movie, and she finished her drink within the first fifteen minutes. She was asleep on the couch before the credits rolled.

  Chapter 5

  “You have two weeks to deliver my mate or I will be coming there for my money,” Barnett Haskell growled into the phone. “If I have to come there, I’m bringing my clan.”

  “I’ll have her delivered to your doorstep in the next ten days,” Robert O’Kelly promised and hung up the phone.

  That fucking bitch had run off two weeks before she was to be picked up, and the Haskell clan had already wired the money. He needed her found. The men of his clan were as fucking useless as that young bitch. He’d tried to sell off Anna Claire as a replacement, but that old male from Montana wanted Ada.

  “We’ve searched everywhere,” Luca O’Kelly, his nephew, said. Robert had sent Luca and the boy’s younger brother, Ransom, out for two weeks to hunt for Ada. They’d lost her scent around Christmas, and ever since then, it was as if she had disappeared into thin air. Winter hibernation had stopped their search, but with spring having arrived, finding Ada was his top priority.

  “Where haven’t you looked?” Robert asked with a huff.

  “We haven’t been to Olive Branch yet,” Luca supplied, looking a bit nervous.

  “Why not?” Robert pressed. His beast was so close to shifting and ripping these males to shreds, but he needed them…useless as they were.

  “Those cats run that town,” Ransom stammered. “There’s no fucking way we can get in and out without them knowing about it.”

  “Pretend you’re a damn tourist or something,” Robert suggested. God, would he have to go there himself?

  “I guess we could.” Luca paused, rubbing at his chin.

  “Stop fucking around and go there,” Robert yelled, getting their attention. “Here’s two hundred dollars. Make it last and don’t come back until she is found.”

  The two males scurried off like rats, and Robert slammed his front door. Ada was a money maker for him, and he was lucky the male from Montana like them small, because she was worth a mint. There was no way he’d give back the half a million dollar advance he’d gotten on her. That money was going to be a life changer for the clan. He had big plans to invest in some less than legal activities, and Ada was the only thing holding him back from reaching the next step in his future.

  Sheriff Lynch pulled into the driveway of the bears land, pausing when Drake and Gunnar exited their home with shotguns at their sides. Thankfully, as soon as they realized it was him, the weapons were set aside and the bears headed down the stairs off the porch. He waited in his vehicle while they approached. The bears were skittish with anyone on their land, and that included the local law enforcement.

  “Sheriff,” Drake Morgan grumbled as Garrett stood from the car. He’d come in plain clothes to make himself seem less threatening.

  “Drake, Rex left a message at the station saying he needed to speak to me.”

  “Yeah, he does,” Drake drawled, “but we need your utmost secrecy in this matter, Garrett.”

  The sheriff was silent for a moment. It wasn’t like Drake to call him by his first name. Even being a grumpy asshole, the male had always been polite enough to call him by his title.

  “As long as it’s legal,” he hedged.

  “For us it is,” Drake stated. “For the people we need to find, it is not.”

  “What in the hell is going on?” the sheriff finally asked after a moment of silence. He was an angel and had the foresight to watch over the panthers, but these bears always made things difficult. He wasn’t their caretaker. Mother Nature was, and he had no idea why she wasn’t here to deal with their enemies.

  “Come inside,” Gunnar, the youngest of the Morgan clan, instructed.

  Inside the log cabin, Garrett took a seat at the kitchen table and accepted a cup of coffee offered by the oldest Morgan brother. He was about to ask where Rex was when the male entered from one of three hallways off the living room.

  “Sheriff,” Rex said with a nod, taking the seat directly across from him.

  “What’s going on, Rex?”

  “We have learned of some illegal activity with another clan,” Rex began. “We found a female bear in our woods, and she was on the run from a clan in Hickory Flat. She had fled their land in late December, then built a den where she hibernated for the winter. When we finally got her inside and fed her, she told us she was being sold to a male in Montana to be force mated.”

  “Forced?” Garrett gasped. He’d been working with the panthers for so long, he understood the meaning behind those words.

  “She’s safe now,” Drake interrupted.

  “Do we have a name of this clan leader?” Garrett asked, pulling out a notepad from his back pocket.

  “Robert O’Kelly,” Rex snarled, his eyes flashing to the golden hue of his beast. “I want him found, and I want shifter law to prevail.”

  “Shifter law overrules the human law, Rex,” the sheriff sighed, “but it’s also in another county…a county I have no control over.”

  “If they come here?” Rex continued.

  “Then, I know nothing…I see nothing,” Garrett said, holding his hands in the air. “Just make sure there are no human witnesses.”

  “Can you do a search on this guy?” Gunnar asked as he took a seat at the end of the table. The youngest Morgan looked as agitated as the rest, and Garrett couldn’t blame them. To a male shifter, a female of their kind was cherished and treated like a queen. For one to be used and put up for sale, it meant the worst.

  “Where is this female now?” he asked after promising he would do a background search on the O’Kelly clan.

  “She is asleep in my room,” Rex said, standing from his seat. Garrett knew his time for questions was coming to an end. It was rare enough he was even let inside the home after receiving a message from the clan to come to their property.

  “If there’s anything else you need, you have my number,” he said, reachin
g out to shake their hands. All three males walked him to the door and didn’t leave the porch until he drove out of sight.

  “Good morning,” Rex said, setting a hot cup of coffee on the end table next to the couch. Ada blinked a few times, trying to remember falling asleep the night before. “You fell asleep on the couch and I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “You covered me up?” she mumbled and sat up, running her fingers through her long, golden-brown hair.

  “I did,” he said, nodding toward the blanket. “I was careful not to touch you.”

  “Thank you for the coffee,” she said, taking the cup.

  “You’re welcome,” he said, then sighed. “Look, I need to work in the fields today with my brothers. Are you okay with staying here with Tessa?”

  “Yes, please,” she begged. “God, I feel so bad. You should be working and not babysitting me, Rex. I can take care of myself.”

  “If you’re sure,” he replied, his features falling. “There is food in the fridge if you’re hungry, and I’ll give you my phone number so you can call me if you have any questions.”

  “Rex,” she frowned, “I don’t have a phone.”

  “Fuck, how could I forget?” he grumbled, angry with himself, and stood from his seat. “I’ll take care of that today.”

  “Rex, you really don’t have to do that,” she protested, holding out her hand when he started to pace and run his hand through his hair. The scent of the forest reached her nose, and she knew his mating scent was getting stronger with his need to claim her. “I can use Tessa’s phone if I need to get in touch with you.”

  “You can use hers today, but I will get you one tonight,” he stated as if it was law. She didn’t roll her eyes or anything. He was an honorable male and wanted to take care of her. At this point in her life, she needed saving, but she would pay him back someday.

  He hurried along and finished gathering his things. He showed her where there was extra coffee if she wanted to make more, but she assured him what was left in the pot would be just fine.