Chapter 8 #2
She shifted in his arms. “Is that what you were doing? I thought—” She cut off her words, but he wouldn’t let her get away with that.
“What? Believe me, I’ve heard it all.”
She winced, and as close as they were, he felt the movement. “I thought you were going to eat him.”
He sighed. Of course she’d think the absolute worst. “I was trying to protect him by standing over him. And you were safest hidden by the tree.”
She shifted back and he reluctantly eased his hold. “So when you’re a bear, you can think? Like a man?”
“I think like a bear with simple man words. Protect. Defend.” Destroy.
“And you were protecting Justin?”
“I was protecting you both. I knew there was someone in the trees. So when you came out into the open, I had to become more aggressive. I had to take out the threat.”
“Which is why you left us.”
Again, she’d thought the worst. “I didn’t know there were more hunters. I only sensed the one man.”
She nodded and stepped farther back. “You thought you were doing the right thing.”
“I was doing the right thing,” he huffed. “That guy had a tranq gun. He could have picked us both off and then taken Justin and us without a fight.”
She nodded, and he could see that her mind was telling her the same thing. But inside she was feeling something else entirely. It didn’t take a genius to guess what.
“You thought I’d abandoned you.”
She snorted. “I wanted you to abandon us. I thought you were trying to eat Justin.”
Ridiculous to feel hurt. She knew nothing of their kind and so of course jumped to all the wrong conclusions. But did she really think he could do that? Even as a bear? “When did you realize the truth?”
She took too long to answer, which told him clear as day that she’d never understood . He’d never abandon her. Not while there was breath in his body.
“I should have called 911 sooner,” she said. “I should have thought before I ran out into the open.”
“You did the bravest thing I’ve ever seen, Becca. You had no defenses, but you ran out to protect Justin anyway.”
She shook her head. “It was stupid.”
“It was brave. And yeah, next time you’re going to have a gun and a cell with 911 on speed dial.
” He touched her cheek. “I’ll never forget the sight of you crouching down as they were heading toward you.
You were going to fight.” He pressed his forehead to hers.
“That’s when I felt complete terror. I knew I couldn’t get to you in time to save you. ”
“But you did.”
He nodded. He had. Adrenaline and all that. Plus shifter reflexes. “Don’t run, Becca. Not where I can’t protect you.”
She jerked as he spoke, lifting her head back and away from him. “I don’t need protection. None of this is my fight.”
He could see she wanted to believe that.
She needed to hold on to the thought that she could run back to Kalamazoo and none of what had happened in the last two and a half days would follow her.
And maybe it was possible. Maybe Theo hadn’t gone through his First Change and certainly hadn’t been taken by whatever nut jobs were out there chasing down shifter kids.
Maybe all of this was a big misunderstanding.
But even if that were true, he’d already gone too far to let her go.
“There’s something else I have to tell you,” he said, hating that he was backed into another corner, but delaying this wasn’t going to help. Which meant he needed to get it out there in the open.
She stiffened, bracing herself for more bad news. “What?”
“I’ve never gotten distracted like I did last night.” She frowned at him, clearly not understanding. “Even as a teen, I never let a girl pull me away from my responsibilities. Not even once.”
Her gaze canted away. And denied her eyes, he focused on her scent to give him clues as to her feelings. “You’re talking about the kiss,” she said, her voice low and her scent wary.
“I’m talking about ten or twenty minutes when I planned to take you in every way possible. I meant to mate with you right there against the tree and nothing—not even Justin—was going to stop me.”
She frowned without looking up. “But you did stop.”
“When there was danger.”
“But—”
She wasn’t getting it. “I’m the Maximus here. I’ve been bred and trained from the beginning to be responsible for my people.”
“I know—”
“I don’t get distracted. It’s not who I am.”
She was silent, and he could all but hear her thoughts churning.
She was struggling to understand a world vastly different from her own, and he couldn’t have been more pleased when her scent went from wary to aroused.
From frightened to intrigued. Unable to stop himself, he touched her stubborn chin and steadily turned her until she was looking into his eyes.
The man in him knew he needed to give her more time, but once her arousal colored the air, the grizzly demanded he possess her now that they were alone in a safe environment.
It was an insanely aggressive physical push to own her as the war between grizzly and man ratcheted up exponentially.
So he chose to explain rather than to take. To tell her things he barely acknowledged to himself, much less to anyone else. But his grizzly gave him no choice. She had to know who she was to his bear.
“There’s only one thing that can distract an alpha like me. Only one time when the primal drives override everything else.”
Her eyes widened, but she didn’t ask. He willed her to form the words, but she didn’t. So he had to fill in the last piece for her.
“It’s when his true mate appears. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s undeniable. It’s some magical alchemy of animal and man and the special pressure of being clan leader. To be honest, I didn’t think it more than a fairy tale.”
She took a step back, the motion a sure stab into his heart. Her scent was muddled now, holding notes of confusion, fear, lust, and delight. “That’s all this is. A fairy tale. A nightmare or a fever dream or…I don’t know. None of this is real.”
She needed to believe that because it was coming at her too fast. He sympathized but his bear would not let her run from this. “It’s real, Becca.” He snared her elbow and kept her close without dragging her back against her will. “You’re my Maxima.”
“I can’t be. I’m not even… We don’t even know that Theo—”
“Don’t care,” he said, his temper getting short.
The more she fought him, the more his bear got pissed off.
And right now, all it wanted to do was drag her back into his arms and stake his claim.
But that was the bear in him. The man knew to insist she listen, but not force her to do more.
“I know this is coming at you too fast.”
“Ya think?”
“But I also know I can’t let you leave. Not until we find Theo. Not until you give us a chance.”
“A chance? To what? Mate like animals in the woods?”
“Yes! No!” He grabbed hold of his temper with an act of will. “I am not an animal, Becca, but I do have certain instincts.”
“Instincts!” She threw the word at him like an insult.
“Yes.” He drew her face up to his. “And they tell me that you’re the one for me.”
“Do you hear yourself? Do you hear how insane that is? There is no destined queen for you. There is no soul mate or fairy godmother or Beauty to tame your Beast. None of this is real!”
That was it. That was where his temper broke and he gave up trying to talk logically to her. This wasn’t about rational thinking anyway. It was her denial, and he couldn’t let her have it. There was too much at stake.
They were at stake.
So he kissed her. He hauled her into his arms and he slammed his mouth down on hers.
It wasn’t how a man kissed a woman. It wasn’t even how an animal claimed its mate.
It was some combination of that plus more.
It was need. He needed her to acknowledge him.
He needed her to accept that they were real.
He needed her to want him as insanely desperately as he wanted her.
Which made no sense at all. They barely knew each other. And yet it was real.
She fought him, but only for a moment. She stiffened in his arms, she pushed at his chest, and she tightened her mouth against him.
But somewhere between one heartbeat and the next, she surrendered.
He’d barely touched her lips when she began to open to him.
He hadn’t even gotten his arms around her when her hands changed from pushing him away to clutching him closer.
And then she whimpered, a sound that was both lust and surrender.
And now she understood. She hungered for him as fiercely as he lusted for her. She didn’t want to. Neither did he. A human Maxima caused all sorts of problems. But this was undeniable. And so they kissed.
Hard. Hot.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up. The bear in him had taken over. She belonged in his bed. And he was going to claim her.
Now.