Bear His Bond: Wylde Den Two (Alaskan Den Men Book 9) (5 page)

She maneuvered him to where the water cascaded over his back and shoulders. Relief worked through him and ever tiny droplet felt like a thousand hands massaging him from head to foot all at once.

Dirt and blood ran down the drain until nothing was left. She briefly hesitated as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled until they both fit beneath the water. She slowly kneeled and untied the makeshift bandage, tossing it on the sink countertop.

Soap in hand, she worked a foamy lather around the area, which earned her a few growls and several cuss words.

It didn’t seem to faze her. She wrapped her delicate hand around his ankle and soothed him with a soft hum his acute hearing picked up over the pitter patter of the water against the shower tiles. She spared him a smile and damn if his cock didn’t twitch. Which earned him a bigger smile. “At least we know you’ll be fine.”

When had she pulled her hair to the side? The braided weave of raven silk hung off her right shoulder in a single lock and tied off with a black ribbon he recognized from her multitude of lotion bottles and trinkets. The delicate ends caught his attention. Every move she made they brushed her breast as though the tips of her hair painted the dusty rose of her nipple.

He wanted to touch the soft strands, wrap them around his fingers as he drew her nipples into his mouth and devoured her taste. But he couldn’t reach her.

He grinned.

In time with her soft hum, he wrapped his hand around his cock and stroked the hard length from base to tip. His eyelids lowered and before long her gaze landed on his. She drifted to her knees, her hands a slow glide up his firm thighs. And her lips. God, save him, they were perfectly pouty as she spread them into a beautiful grin.

With her gaze locked on his and without saying a word, Pepper accepted him into the confines of her luscious, warm mouth. If not for the wall at his back he’d be on the floor the second the warm pad of her tongue caressed the underside of his cock.

She made every inkling of pain fade into distant background noise.

Her eyes slipped shut. Her scent shackled his scenes. Threads of powerful magick flicked to life in an instant. Once again she turned red blood to lava.

Every cell in his body held the heat of a thousand suns. Chills scaled down his spine, and his heart clenched. Energy suddenly surrounded them and his incisors ached, lengthened. His bear begged for freedom. Begged for their mate.

He fisted his hands in her soaked hair and worked the long locks loose from their confinement. She hollowed her cheeks and gently worked himself deeper into her mouth.

“Pepper. You’re going to steal everything I have.” He rocked forward and slowly withdrew, his muscles tense, shaking. She looked so fucking beautiful.

His words brought her gaze back to his. Her only answer was to widen for him and accepted him deeper.

She loved so openly, yet he couldn’t give her what she wanted. Not truly and fully.

She anchored herself with her hands on his thighs, but it wasn’t good enough. Driven by a force of current, magick, instinct—whatever the hell had him wanting to murder anyone that dared harm her—he scooped her up and gathered the hem of her shirt. His injury and the pain that coupled with it forgotten.

In one pull he had her bare, bra and all. “Everett, we can’t. You’re hurt and what kind of doctor would I be if I push further than you can take?” She took a step from him and he followed, pressing her into the back wall of the shower. From the amount of steam filling the small room the tiles were already warm to the touch.

“The kind I need, that’s what. Isn’t there some kind of understood law or rule that says sex heals?”

His insides were already torn up and who cared about his leg. That would heal. His heart, not so much. “If not, I say we need to test the theory and then report on the outcome, baby.” A somber look darkened her eyes. The rosy color of her cheek turned a nasty purple and he could tell the bruise went deeper than just the skin. He leaned forward and gently ran his lips across the tender area until he kissed every last spot.

“Say you don’t want me and I’ll be a good boy. Scout’s honor.” He pressed his forehead to hers. The thin veil separating him from his grizzly shimmered and all he could see when he looked at her was his mate and how fucking beautiful she would look wearing his bond. Spencer, his twin brother would forgive him. Maybe. But resisting her wasn’t an option. Not any longer, if he wanted to be honest with himself. When she asked about Brax earlier in the woods he choked up, unable to talk about the death of his brother and the resulting war it almost led to. When he lost his twin, a part of him died too.

Until now. She brought hope with her sunshine-filled laughter and bubbly outlook.

“I don’t believe you know what that means.” She wiggled in his arms and it only made his engorged shaft throb against her soft midriff where he pressed against her.

“What? Being a boy scout or being good?”

“Both, Everett Wylde. Both.”

She had him there.

Another bout of heat worked up the lower part of his back until it seeped into his blood with a fierceness he couldn’t rein in. Didn’t want to control. His heart pounded and every one of his senses locked in on her.

Her lips parted but the only sounds she made were little kitten moans of pleasure as he slipped his lips over hers. When she gasped, he moved the kiss deeper.

Blood pounded in his ears.

Fear. Doubt. It all swirled in his gut like a hot ball of uncertainty, but every time he touched her, hell, looked at her, his world righted itself somehow.

Since losing his twin to a brutal death, he feared sharing that special bond again. Feared the savage human he knew would come out the other side if anything ever happened to her. History always repeated itself, but if he lost her, blood would spill. His bear wouldn’t have it any other way.

Dammit.

A growl unfurled deep within and ripped from his throat. Mother nature had thrown the harshest mating season at him and he had fucked his way through them. Why the hell did this year have to be different?

All it took was one look at her sapphire eyes and sweet smile and his bear turned on him. Maybe he had it coming by daring fate, but he couldn’t blame his beast. Weren’t they one and the same?

He broke their kiss to work his way down her neck, devouring the taste of her essence one lick and nibble at a time until all he wanted for the rest of his life was the taste of peaches and sunlight on his tongue. She‘d discovered his favorite fruit and deliberately teased him with lotions and soaps that had him fucking turning in circles.

With her hair wrapped around his fist, he angled her head to the side for better access.

He wanted to believe he could have her.

Had too. Because neither of them would leave the Wylde lands unmarked.

Desperation tightened in his chest. He couldn’t get enough. Pure white lightning burst through his body, and the world brightened with sunshine and the smell of fresh sea air. Beams of light fired across his mind and her face faded in and out.

A tiny gasp brought his gaze around, and the connection snapped.

“It’s happening again. What does— Your eyes. They’re so bright,” she stuttered, eyes wide.

He no longer had blood in his veins. Heat consumed him, fire hotter than anything hell could cook up tore through him to leave nothing but ashes in its wake and it was all he could do to pull away from her. He rubbed a hand over his chest.

Slowly he regained his jumbled thoughts. “I’m sorry. I... uuh... I don’t know what came over me.” Razorblades cut deep, slicing the tethers forming between their minds. The lie rolled off his tongue with little effort, but it tasted of deception and ash.

How much did she know of shifters, in particular, his kind? If he had half a chance to explain his bear wanted to bond with her, would she freak out? He would ruin everything they shared and possibly never see her again after they got out of here. No human understood the bond shifters shared, especially werebears. Until death do us part meant exactly that.

When his twin brother had been killed it took weeks for him to form sentences and months to regain enough passion for life to continue on. Now not even his brothers could see the pain hidden behind beyond the mask. He couldn’t imagine a world where he could survive that kind of bond again.

A bond he only shared with his twin. And now his bear wanted another?

He couldn’t.

“Let’s finish up.”

A soft hand on his shoulder stopped him. Her gaze begged him for an explanation, but he didn’t trust himself to answer. She saw deeper into him than anyone ever had. Then again, he never let a woman get closer than a one-night stand allowed.

At some point the hot water had gone and the steam faded to leave the room cold. Cringing at her frustrated sighs, he stepped back and let her push past him. She reached to the left, fetched a towel and passed him another.

A riot of sensations bombarded him and his bear growled a warning in his head. Too damn bad.

Pepper stepped out and grabbed the towel from his fumbling hands. “Here, let me. You might be stubborn but at least let me help so I don’t have to carry your ass to the couch wet.”

Ouch. He’d hurt her, but that was easier to deal with than what he really wanted to do. Besides, would she accept him? Did she know how shifters mated? She was a human coming into the world of shifters. No way she’d understand the needs of a werebear. She understood marriage and white picket fences. Not bonding and territories.

Or what it meant to love a werebear. And frankly, he didn’t know if he had it in him to let her that close.

CHAPTER FIVE

Go on a wild Alaskan adventure, they said. It will be fun and give you a new perspective as a wildlife vet, they said. They, being her brothers. Her father and mother not so much.

Pepper outright snorted. She sure put the
wild
in wildlife veterinarian. So far her Alaskan adventure had landed her smack in the middle of a one-sided shootout. Well, maybe not technically. But close enough her father may not ever let her leave home again. Chapped lips, a nasty bruise, and her first fight. Then there was the sex with her temporary Alaskan hottie. That almost made up for the scariest afternoon of her life.

She angled her head to the side, keeping the rest of her body still. Dark lashes kissed flushed cheeks. Another couple of hours and if his fever didn’t drop along with his ragged breathing, then she’d worry. That shower nearly killed him whether he wanted to admit it or not. And it almost did her in too.

He hid something from her and he wore it like a shield. Fighting it and him proved to be a losing battle. The way he held her, touched her, proved there were layers to him she didn’t know anything about. But why would he open up and share?

She watched him now. His body looked relaxed but the normally soft set of his eyes crinkled up with pain.

Could it be that his wereblood genetics created different side effects from a gunshot? There were so many angles to consider. This wasn’t exactly standard information in the medical books. Why she didn’t know. After more than a decade knowing about the otherworldlies living among humans, things like that needed to change.

Pepper cupped Everett’s cheek and leaned in to press her hand to his forehead. He’d fallen asleep the second his head hit the pillow almost two hours earlier.

“Woman, if you don’t get some sleep, I’ll find a way to use that pent-up energy and make good on what we didn’t finish in the shower.” He touched a hand to hers. “Sleep, Pepper. I’m fine.”

Fine my ass
. “Liar.” She tossed back remembering just how good he felt pressed up against her all dripping wet and hard.

“Don’t make me.” Everett shifted as if he intended to make good on his promise.

“Everett Wylde, you move from that couch and I’ll show you a new use for my scarves.” She fingered the new one, purple this time, which hung low around her neck to mingle with the pink of her tank top. It matched the sky beyond the living room window as the sun started its early ascent.

“Can hardly wait.”

He sounded in pain.

As if sensing her gaze, he pressed up and the second his eyes slid open to connect with hers, sporadic images flashed across her mind. Her gaze unfocused for a brief second and then it was gone.

“Stop worrying so much. I’ll be fine by morning,” he continued as if nothing happened.

A young boy. Mussed brown hair a few shades lighter than Everett’s now. Bright golden eyes and the sweetest smile. Then he was gone.

She blinked. “You, uh… you keep saying that like I should already know it.” She cleared her throat and regained her focus. “And if you haven’t noticed that’s only a few hours away.” She pointed out the window. “And we still don’t have a plan to get outta here.”

“A little rest and my bear will awake. Once I can shift then everything else will sort itself out.”

He was telling the truth. A soft pink skin already formed over one side of the wound and the swelling had eased off a bit.

“What does it mean to bond?” There was a bigger story behind the boy she caught a glimpse of. Could it be his brother? No one spoke of him and before today she didn’t even know to ask.

Surprise flitted across his expression and tightened the muscles of his neck with how his vein bulged the second she asked her question. Momma Wylde, as the town folk called her, explained a few things to over hot cocoa and a roaring fire while the boys went out for a run in the snow on long winter nights. She’s shared that once a shifter found their mate, a connection formed and it was how she knew when her husband, Everett’s father, stole one too many cookies in the middle of the night. Or found danger and needed help.

“What? Where did you hear that?”

“From you. In the shower earlier.” He didn’t need to know what the girls talked about when they weren’t around.

She straightened her shoulders when she saw the way his eyes glazed over and he grew pensive.

“Never mind. Forget I asked.” If he wanted to be a clam, so could she.

“It’s not—” He let out a gruff growl of frustration and scrubbed his hands down his face. “It’s like being married in your world.”

“Married?” Momma Wylde didn’t explain it anything like marriage, but more like finding the other half of your soul. She had used the words eternity and soul-bound.

He nodded.

Pepper shifted in her seat so that she could look him dead in the eyes. “And that’s a bad thing?

“It is when the girl is human and has no knowledge of what it means?”

“Right. Forget I just asked so that I would know. And why is being human so bad? You say it like it’s a disease. And what is so bad about marriage?” she asked again. Curiosity shot her tone an octave higher but he said it in a way she couldn’t help but wonder. She knew for a fact werebears mated humans. His brother did so a couple of weeks before.

Braced against the armrest with his leg spread across her lap she had no choice but to wait. The itch to pace had her biting her lip. She’d read him wrong earlier. He didn’t want anything past a fun fling after all.

A tremor quaked in her chest. Maybe this was for the best. She only had a short time on her clock anyway. After they had a suspect for the poisoning, all she had to do was test the water, help the wildlife rangers fix the problem, and she could scoot on out of town. The Wylde crew could handle their own shifter problems, and she’d make it damn clear to Everett he wouldn’t have to worry about her cramping his style for much longer.

Tension cranked the up the heat in the room and finally cracked her patience.

“Because it’s nothing nowhere near what you and I would share. It’s like drinking hot water when all you want is the coldest, largest glass of iced water on a hot summer day. Hell, we already share. Those images you’re seeing. That’s my bear seeking you out. Wanting to forge a connection deeper than any spoken vows or wedding rings can provide.”

So he did know.

She looked down at her hands, her fingers finding the edges of the scarf she used as a makeshift bandage. She’d tossed it over the back of the couch as she helped Everett get comfortable after their shower. A stain, large and purple against the blue scarf caught her eye. She turned the cloth over in her hands and dried petals tumbled out to land on Everett’s legs and her lap.

She held up a hand for him to wait.

Hope rose and tidbits of what her mother taught her as a child came crashing back. “Bless you, Mom!” She sat up. “Did you come in contact with anything out there earlier?” She kept her tone even as not to startle him or give him false hope. There were still a couple of tests to do before she would know for certain. Along with her knowledge in animal medicine, she also studied at the knee of her mother, who worked as a biology professor by day. By night she used her knowledge of plants and herbs for healing salves and teas. Thanks to her mother’s green thumb and smarts, so did she.

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Everett angle his head to the side but didn’t say anything. Big surprise there.

“You mean what Brax dumped?”

She nodded. “Mmhmm.”

He paused, considering her question. “Other than a bullet, not that I know of.”

Right. He’d stripped before shifting, and there had been so much dirt and blood she couldn’t tell if any of the liquid the ice bear had poured in the water made contact with him.

Wait. That was it. The bullet. It had to be laced with the same substance the shifter poured into the lake. “Why that lowlife, back-stabbing asshat!”

Where the hell did she leave her glasses?

Everett gestured to the top of his head, with a small grin.

Right. She could create compound formulas, save lions and tigers from near death with her herbal concoctions. She tossed a look at Everett…and apparently bears. But she could not keep up with a pair of glasses.

With as much ease as she could, Pepper worked off the bandages she placed over the wound after their shower. “Doc, what is it?”

“I got so carried away with
other distractions
in the shower I forgot the most important thing.”

She stood, carefully placing his leg back on the cushion. “When you shift after getting hurt, what happens?” She rummaged through her gear and found an unused swab and sterile baggie.

“I heal. All shifters do. Even that damn ice bear will heal.”

Oh. Good point. She understood the disgust in his tone all too well.

They were like sitting ducks out here, maybe he had trouble shifting too. She could hope.

Pepper moved back to the couch and turned his leg slightly so she could see the outer part. Just as she thought.

“See these petals?” She held up the tiny wilted petals that dropped from her field bandage, “I found them wrapped up in this and it appears they came in contact with only one side of the wound. Hence the reason the other side has not healed. They must have stuck to my scarf when I fell to the ground.”

Darkness clouded his eyes, so she pushed forward quickly. “When you’ve gotten hurt in the past, can you ever remember a time where you couldn’t shift or didn’t heal?” Using the process of elimination, she ran through the obvious to tick it off her list. Careful to not aggravate the area any further, she swabbed the wound that had yet to close on the inside of his leg.

“If it’s bad enough the pain will keep the shift away. It’s just part of being a shifter. We heal fast for the most part, never get sick and have fast metabolisms.”

“Then why the fever?”

His eyes narrowed. “Good question.”

“I think I know why. Whatever Brax spiked the lake with must be some kind of poison meant for shifters. But I don’t know for sure what it does and how bad it will get because of your wereblood metabolism. Your system could just be acting wonky to the gunshot. I have to make sure. I have to take samples of the water and with what I have in my field kit I can run some tests here that will at least tell us if it’s lethal. And with this,” she held up the long cotton Q-tip, “I’ll confirm what I already believe to be true.”

“That I’m poisoned.”

She nodded.

“Pepper, you’re not doing what I think you’re saying you wanna do.”

Pepper arched a brow at him and anchored her hands on her hips. “It’s not like you’re going to do it for me. Besides, I’m a big girl. And it could mean lives, Everett.”

“Yeah, yours, Pepper,” he tossed back at her. “Not happening.” He grabbed a fist full of cushion and hauled himself to his feet. He swayed but held a hand up for her to leave him be.

Stubborn to the core. She fought to contain her frustration and the need to scream. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d stomped her feet, but the man made her feet itch to do some pounding.

“You wanna talk about tying down and using scarves? You even touch that door handle, woman, and I’ll have you wrapped around me so damn tight you won’t know where you end and I begin from now to the end of time, if it will keep you safe.”

Her mouth fell open. “And that’s the only reason, right? To keep me safe. Gotta keep your Boy Scout badges well-polished and shiny.”

She had a sinking feeling about the small confession, limited as it may be. Hope surfaced, but it only meant she fell for him a little harder despite wanting to clamp a hand over her ears in denial. Freaking werebear, always tying her in knots.

He slammed a fist down on the dining room table where she stood organizing the gear she needed for the tests. He moved fast for an injured man. She’d do good to remember that. “Dammit, Pepper, look at me.”

Anger made her movements jerky, but she turned to him. Big fat freaking mistake. Her heart lurched in her chest and did a freaking nosedive to the pit of her stomach without stopping so she could catch her breath.

He stalked forward, able to put a little more pressure on his leg than he had when they first walked in the door.