Mating Instinct (Morgan Clan Bears, Book 2)

by Theresa Hissong

  “Fuck,” she gasped when he dipped his head, lapping at the spot between her legs. It was different from the mating, for sure, but the sensations running through her body were the same. “Oh, Rex.”

  “Tell me what you want, mate,” he smirked as he pulled away from her core.

  “You,” she panted. How could this male drive her to the brink with just one look?

  “Me?” he teased, touching her pussy as he moved up her body.

  “Now, please,” she begged. There was a release building inside her body; a heat, in a way. The need for his body and seed burned inside her.

  Ada’s body undulated as his fingers primed her for their mating. A soft sheen of sweat coated her body with each stroke, and she caught her own scent at the same time Rex did. His eyes flashed golden as a primal growl rolled off his tongue.

  “Are you in heat?” he asked, pausing with his eyes wide. There wasn’t fear in them, but a need as strong as her own.

  “I…I think so,” she stammered. “Please, Rex. Fuck me.”

  His free hand slid between her hair and cheek as he cupped the back of her neck. She wanted to protest when his fingers stopped their pleasure, but she didn’t have time to say anything before he took her lips and guided his cock inside her.

  The moment he was seated, she felt her body come alive. The need for his seed was at the forefront of her mind. The heat was unbearable, and she lifted her hips as he slammed against her. There was no pain this time. No, no pain, but there was a craving she couldn’t explain. She knew what it was, though.

  She was fertile, and when she bit the existing mating mark on his neck, he roared as his release emptied into her body.

  Rex woke to a scent that was strange, but familiar. His sleep addled brain didn’t want to come alive while his mate was tucked into his chest. The night before had lasted for hours as his mate was insatiable for his cock. The memory caused a smile to tug at the corner of his lips as he buried his nose into her soft hair, inhaling her scent.

  Her scent…

  It was different.

  A rumble bubbled out of his chest as his beast awoke. The muscles in his arms bunched as they tightened.

  Protect.

  The bear inside him paced, throwing out one thought…one demand. The female’s scent had changed in the night, and he purred when she started to squirm. “Mine.”

  “Rex?” Ada yawned. “What’s wrong? Why are you holding me so tight?”

  “Scent,” he mumbled, nuzzling her mating mark. “You smell so good, Ada.”

  Had she used a new shampoo? A new fragrance?

  Every time she moved, the scent wrapped around him, filling his nose with the most amazing smell he’d ever encountered.

  With a jerk, his eyes popped wide when he felt the calming sensation move over him.

  “Rex?” she repeated. “What are you doing?”

  Rex moved so fast, even he was surprised at his speed. He gently rolled Ada from her side to her back, and his beast pushed at his skin, demanding he press his face to her belly. “Oh, God, Ada.”

  “Rex?” she repeated, looking at him in shock. All the color had drained from her face as tears filled her big, brown eyes. “Am I?”

  “Yes, yes, my mate, yes,” he chanted as he kissed the spot below her belly button. “You have made me the happiest male on the face of the planet.”

  “I’m with young?” she giggled.

  A male could scent when a female was with young within hours of conception, and for a male shifter, it was the most relaxing, most calming thing they could ever experience. Rex had no idea how much stronger it would be when the female carrying a young was your own mate.

  “Yes, Ada,” he replied, taking her lips in a sweet but thankful kiss.

  “I’m so happy,” she cried, digging her fingers into his long hair. His beast roared inside his head with as much happiness as his human side.

  “The only thing I’ve ever wanted as much as a mate is a cub, and you’ve given me that,” he whispered, retuning to nuzzling her belly.

  Rex couldn’t remove himself from the bed. His brothers would have to pry him away in about fifteen minutes when they were ready to leave. Regardless of his need to eliminate the threat to his mate, Rex wasn’t ready to leave her side after the realization she was carrying his cub.

  A knock on the outer door jerked his head from her belly. A growl rumbled in his chest as his bear became protective. He had to push at the beast as his fangs thickened in his mouth.

  “It’s just your brothers,” she whispered as she tucked a strand of hair behind his ear.

  “I have to go.”

  “Please…be careful,” she whispered and stroked his hair once more before he sat up in the bed. He strode to the door, cracking it to make sure whomever was on the other side was, in fact, one of his brothers.

  “Put clothes on,” Gunnar ordered. “We are leaving in ten minutes.”

  “I’ll be right there,” he replied through the tiny crack in the door. Gunnar nodded and turned on his heel as he returned to the main area of the house.

  “We have to kill her leader,” he whispered to the bear inside him when it wanted to stay close to their mate.

  When he entered the bedroom, his mate was already asleep. He dressed and hovered over the bed for another minute, taking in the vision before him. She was his, and he vowed to keep her from harm. “I’ll return with your freedom, Ada.”

  He closed the bedroom door softly, and did the same with the outer door. He marched up the sloped hallway, stopping as he entered the living area of the home. Gunnar was in the kitchen, pouring a cup of coffee when he looked over his shoulder and froze. “What’s wrong?”

  “My…my mate is with young,” he stated. “It’s time to kill Robert O’Kelly, and I won’t come home until I can bring his heart to the females he has harmed.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about,” the panther, Savage, said from the doorway. The panthers and sheriff had arrived just in time. “Are we ready to do this?”

  “More than ready,” Rex snarled and swiped his keys off the hook by the door.

  Chapter 16

  “Where is my female?” Barnett Haskell had arrived at two that morning, barging into Robert’s home with three males from his clan.

  “Ah, I can explain,” Robert stammered, sitting up in his bed.

  “Yes, you will,” the male snarled and reached for Robert’s shirt, balling the material into a fist as he pulled him from the bed.

  “Let me go, you fucking asshole,” he growled as the male drug him down the stairs.

  “My men have searched your home, and Ada isn’t in her room,” Barnett yelled. “They are going to every home on this land to tear it apart if you don’t give me the female I paid for.”

  “She’s, uh…she’s staying with a relative,” he lied.

  “Bullshit,” Barnett cursed. “You’d be an idiot to let a female out of your sight. Especially one who had been paid for. Speaking of, if you do not produce her, I will need my money back. If you don’t have it, I will take a chunk of your skin for every dollar that’s unaccounted for.”

  “I have your money,” he lied again. The money had been spent on the guns, and although he’d gotten paid for the last shipment, another one was coming in today that needed to be paid for. He had to think of some way to hold off the male until the transaction was finished.

  Where the fuck were his cousins, and why hadn’t they brought him that female?

  Ada couldn’t get past her nausea to stress over Rex and the other males going to the O’Kelly clan. She moaned as her empty stomach protested. She needed food…ugh, maybe not.

  After Rex had left the room, she’d slept for another hour before her eyes popped wide, a pain twisting in her stomach. She’d been in the bathroom for twenty minutes. As soon as she was able to quit throwing up, she brushed her teeth and dressed in one of Rex’s shirts. It hung to her knees, but she didn’t care. It scented of him.

  “Ad
a, are you okay?” Tessa asked as Ada entered the kitchen. The female was working by the stove, and Anna Claire was fast asleep on the sofa.

  As soon as the scent of bacon hit her, she covered her mouth and ran for the small bathroom off the kitchen. The sound of a metal utensil hitting the tile echoed in the house as her knees hit the ground. She wrenched the lid open and dry heaved again, holding her stomach as she begged her body to cooperate.

  “Holy shit,” Tessa fretted, coming over to touch Ada’s forehead. “Are you sick?”

  “Can you not scent me?” Ada asked.

  “Wait, what?” Tessa frowned, testing the air. “Yeah, you smell different. What’s going on?”

  “I’m pregnant, Tessa,” she moaned and leaned against the wall. “A female shifter’s scent changes when she conceives. I forgot you were human before.”

  “I’ve never scented a pregnant shifter.” She frowned for a second before scenting the air again. Tessa shook her head and squatted next to Ada. “What did Rex say?”

  “He’s very happy,” Ada answered as Tessa helped her up from the floor. “I need water and maybe some crackers.”

  “Let’s get you fixed up, and after that, we can wait on word from the males,” Tessa sobered. Ada sensed the change in her new friend.

  “I’m worried,” Ada admitted.

  “There’s no need to worry,” Tessa assured her. “They have the sheriff and four of the panthers from the Shaw pride to help them.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Ada sniffled, feeling her emotions bubble to the surface. Between being sick, hungry, and worried, everything crashed down on her. “Oh god, Tessa. What if Robert still has those guns?”

  “That’s what the sheriff is there for,” Tessa promised. “The males have a solid plan. Let them take care of this.”

  They returned to the kitchen, and Ada swallowed down the nausea as Tessa plated the bacon. She shooed Ada away and made her a glass of water, reaching into the pantry for crackers.

  “Ada?” Anna Claire said from the couch. “Are you?”

  “Yes,” Ada replied with a smile. “I am.”

  The younger female rushed to Ada, pulling her from the chair to hug her with more strength than a young female should have. Anna Claire cried into her hair, and Ada was hoping it was tears of happiness and not from pain or sadness.

  “Anna Claire?”

  “I’m so happy for you,” Anna Claire squealed.

  “Thank you,” Ada whispered. “How are you, Anna Claire?”

  “I’m fine,” she replied as she released Ada, taking a seat in the chair next to her. She ran her fingers through her long, blonde hair. She looked just like her mother. “Physically, I’m fine.”

  “We will help you get through it,” Ada replied, taking Anna Claire’s hand.

  “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to mate a worthy male,” she admitted, using the back of her hand to wipe away a stray tear that leaked from the corner of her eye.

  “You will,” Tessa said, setting a plate of food in front of the female. Ada and Tessa shared a knowing look. Rex and Drake’s brother, Gunnar, was already showing signs of attraction to Anna Claire even if he hadn’t even talked to her more than a few words. His beast already knew. His mating instinct was strong when they’d brought Anna Claire to their home.

  Ada’s heart crumbled at her words, and she wanted nothing more than to be the one to kill Anna Claire’s father for the things he’d done and allowed with the females of the clan. No one should have that much power over a clan and use it for evil.

  “What do we do now?” Anna Claire asked, pushing her eggs around her plate. The female needed to eat to regain her strength. She’d probably need to shift again today, too.

  “We wait until the males return home,” Tessa replied as she took her seat at the table. The three females ate in silence, but the look of worry on their faces spoke volumes.

  Rex calmed his beast as they parked the trucks in the same wooded area where they’d found Anna Claire. The sun was still an hour away from breaking over the horizon, and they had that much time to get in and take down Robert O’Kelly and the two other males.

  “Something’s not right,” Luca announced from the backseat of the truck. Drake killed the engine and turned in his seat.

  “What is it?” Drake demanded.

  “That SUV doesn’t belong on the land,” Ransom answered for his brother. There were two old pickup trucks, a rusted out Mustang with a flat tire, and a shiny, black Escalade. It was obvious the SUV was the one they’d noticed.

  “Does it look familiar?” Rex asked, narrowing his eyes, hoping his enhanced vision could see someone through the thickly tinted windows, but it was no use. The distance was too far, and the tint too dark.

  “It’s not the same car Barnett used when he came here last, but it’s the same color,” Luca growled. “He had a rental last time, because he’d flown into Memphis from Montana. They used the rental to get to our land so he could meet Ada.”

  The thought of the male from Montana being within reach set Rex off. A snarl echoed inside the cab of his brother’s truck as his canines thickened. He could already taste the blood of his enemy on his tongue.

  Protect your mate.

  Kill the enemy.

  Rex’s beast was on edge just as much as his human side. A male’s instincts were to protect their clan, and he was going to do everything in his power to make sure Ada and the other females of his clan never had to deal with monsters again.

  “I want both males brought to me,” Rex ordered as he opened the door to step out of the truck.

  Gunnar and the other panthers, Savage, Booth, Kraven, and Storm, gathered along with the sheriff in a darkened area close to the road. Unless the O’Kelly clan caught their scent, they were hidden as well as possible until it was time to go.

  “I have to stay back, but if you find guns, you must get the elders out as soon as you take out the males,” Sheriff Lynch replied as he removed a duffle bag from the backseat of his personal car. He removed several pairs of gloves and handed them out. He donned his own and reached inside the bag to retrieve several handguns. “No fingerprints, and make sure whichever gun is used is left by the bodies. They’ve been scrubbed, so there’s no tracing them back. The results of the investigation will say they were killed by the men coming to buy the guns.”

  “How will that work if the guns are still there?” Drake asked.

  “The bodies of the men from Montana will disappear before the guns will be found,” Sheriff Lynch said, his eyes flashing white. It was his other side. The Watcher, or angel, was shady, but he was on their side. “Shifter law will rule. Now, go before day breaks.”

  There was silence as the weapons exchanged hands. No one in the group wanted to take another life, but as with shifter law, it was imperative to control their kind when the bad ones got out of hand.

  “Be safe everyone,” Rex ordered, taking a deep breath and shoving his gun into the inside pocket of his jacket. “Let’s go.”

  The males quieted as Kraven and Storm shifted into their animal form. The cats were deadly and a great asset to their mission. Drake had held them at arm’s length for the longest time, only recently accepting them as friends after mating Tessa. If it wasn’t for their help, Rex would’ve been worried about what they were about to do.

  The panther, Kraven, nudged his hand and they were off, crossing the divided highway under the cover of darkness. There were no street lights to shine on their movement, and being early in the morning, there weren’t many cars traveling by the O’Kelly’s land.

  Drake made a motion with his hand for them to stall at the chain link fence that ran the length of the property. There was no gate closing off the driveway, but it didn’t matter. Shifters could climb and jump two to three times higher than a human. The fence gave them cover with the vines and weeds that weaved through the links.

  “Two check the car,” Rex ordered, but held his hand for them to stay before turning to the
cousins. “Which house is Robert’s?” There were four homes on the land, along with two huge barns. If Rex had to guess, the guns were in the outbuildings.

  “The two-story white one is where Robert lived with Ada and Anna Claire,” Luca replied. “Robert’s room is at the top of the stairs.”

  “Luca, check the car for scents with one of the panthers,” Rex continued. “I need conformation it belongs to the male from Montana.”

  Luca nodded and moved toward the black SUV, one of the panthers moving with sleek grace at his side. The male ducked low at the back of the vehicle and creeped around the side to get a closer scent by the passenger side door. When his eyes glowed the golden hue of his beast, Rex knew it was time to go after them.

  “Main house first,” he ordered and began to move. The males followed him, his brothers at his side, Ransom at his back, and the panthers around the edges. When they reached the truck, the male and panther fell into place as if they’d practiced this very thing a million times.

  They hadn’t, and Rex didn’t miss the meaning behind having this eclectic bunch of shifters at his side, willing to risk themselves to make sure the monster inside that house was destroyed.

  With each step, the males swelled with anticipation of a fight. The scent of other bears tickled Rex’s nose, and he memorized every one. His beast pushed at his skin, forcing deadly claws to replace his human fingers. Each one sharp and prepared to fight until the death.

  The early morning hours were silent, not a sound within miles, and Rex inhaled the crisp morning air, giving him the needed headspace to draw blood. He didn’t want to shoot the males, regardless of the sheriff’s request. He wanted to kill them as his animal side demanded.

  “Easy,” Drake whispered beside him. “Focus.”

  Rex froze as they approached the front door. A movement of the curtain in the front room caught his attention. Everyone dropped low to the ground, squatting to keep any shadows from alerting their enemy to their presence.