Bear Mated: A BBW Bear Shifter Paranomal Romance (Pine Ridge BBW Bear Shifter Paranormal Romance Series Book 2) (6 page)

Unable to help it, she mashed her
eyes shut and whimpered when she felt his cock pulse inside her, and she
imagined his balls filled with his seed ready to squirt into her, a glorious
white fountain spraying deep into her. She moved her hips faster, faster, ever
faster. At last she opened her eyes to see his face taut and his eyes devouring
her. He was
into
this! Into her. She
thrilled to see that lustful look in this
studly
,
confident bear-shifter’s eyes. She was inciting him to this frenzy, making him
wild.

As he pumped into her, he had to
arch his body, and his chest gleamed with sweat. She trailed a hand over his
hard abs, then squeezed one of his firm
pecs
. He was
glorious, like a sculpture of some Greek god come to life.

His cock throbbed inside her again,
exciting her even more.

“Yes,” he gasped, and she knew he
was on the edge of delirium.

His cock pulsed again, stretching
her even more, and that’s all it took. She screamed out his name as a golden
wave of pleasure carried her up to giddy heights and her nerve endings
exploded. She detonated around him, pounding her hips rapidly against his. He
screamed out a split-second later, then erupted inside her. She gasped to feel
his hot seed explode in her core and shoot up deep into her.

Feeling his cum still emptying into
her, she gasped and collapsed onto him. She still shuddered and gyrated her hips,
wanting to feel him inside her for as long as she could.

“Yes,” she said, panting.

Then he did a surprising thing.
Their faces were right next to each other, and he tilted his face toward hers
and kissed her, right on the lips. She was so surprised that she flinched. For
some reason she’d thought this was just sex to him, not actual romance, despite
what he’d said, and certainly he wouldn’t be kissing her afterward. But kiss
her he did, and after a moment she responded, pressing her lips against his. She
opened her mouth to him, thrusting her tongue against his.

He pumped inside her again, then
squeezed her ass and grunted inside her mouth. At last he pulled back, gasping.

“Did you like it?” she said,
wincing at the desperate quality of her words. It was as if she were begging
him for a favorable report.

Instead of answering directly, he
put his forehead against hers and stared deeply into her eyes. They stayed that
way for a long time, looking into each other, even as his cock continued to
throb occasionally and spurt inside her.

Overhead the stars twinkled, and
the fire in the pit began to ebb.

“I’d better build that back up,” he
said. “I don’t need the heat, but you do.”

In answer, she gripped him with her
vaginal muscles and pinned his arms to the ground. Inside her, he began to
stiffen once more. She rocked her hips, and he hardened still further.

“Not a chance, buster,” she said. “
You
can keep me warm.”

He grinned and pumped his hips,
thrusting into her. With a moan, she moved against him, too.

Rick woke up with a start, sweat on his brow and his bear
raging inside him. It was growling and slashing in his core, wild and
uncontrollable, as if it were clawing his soul to shreds.

One of his arms was around Barbara,
and when he lurched up it disturbed her, and she woke, too.

With a gasp, she said, “What is it,
Rick?”

He turned away from her, not
wanting her to see his face. “I’m … fine,” he said, but even he could hear the
raggedness in his voice.

She laid a hand on his shoulder,
and at first he started to jerk away from her touch—his animal was really going
crazy inside him, as it did sometimes—but then something strange happened. Her
touch … seemed to
calm
his bear. It
had been raging and gnashing its teeth just moments before, but as soon as she
touched him it began to grow mellower, more tractable.

Shocked, Rick turned back to her.

“You,”
he said.

Her eyes widened in alarm.
“W-what?”

She must have thought she’d done
something wrong. He laughed and hugged her to him, and at the contact his bear
mellowed even more, at least subsiding altogether.

“You’re
amazing
,” he said, completing his earlier thought.

“I … what?” She blinked and rubbed
her eyes. “What just happened? What am I missing?”

He kissed her on the mouth, and
after a moment she kissed back. Then drew away.

“I’ve got sleep breath,” she said,
covering her mouth with a hand.

“Your sleep breath tastes like
roses. Barb, don’t you know what this means?”

“That your human nose kind of
sucks?”

He grinned and stood up. It was
early morning and the birds were just beginning to chirp in the trees. The sun
was sluggishly heaving itself over the peaks to the east, casting warm orange
light over the falls and making them seem to glow from within. The light made
Barbara look even more beautiful than before, and it didn’t hurt that she was
naked except for the bra and panties she’d put back on. She’d thrown her clothes
over herself as a blanket, but they’d fallen away when she sat up.

“It means that you’re my mate,” he
said, as if it were obvious.

“Your mate,” she said. She sounded
shocked—but not horrified. After all, they’d talked about it last night, or at
least he had. They hadn’t mentioned it since, though.

Her reaction encouraged him. He
nodded and held out a hand to her. After a moment, she took it and let him pull
her to her feet. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her against him,
and instantly he could feel himself begin to harden against her belly. His bear
growled inside him, and he growled, too, but this time it was a different sort
of growl. A lusty growl.

Barbara laughed but pushed herself away.
“Can you explain just a little bit about what’s going on?”

“Don’t you see? No woman has ever
been able to handle my bear before. But here you are, and at one touch from you
my bear chilled the hell out. You’re my mate!” He threw his head back and
whooped. The birds stopped chittering for a moment, then resumed with even greater
volume than before. “See?” he said. “They’re singing for us.”

She knelt beside the lagoon and
splashed water on her face, then rinsed out her mouth and spat.

“I think you need some of this cold
water, too,” she said.

He joined her, washing his face and
rinsing out his mouth. Barbara became strangely quiet, and he grew worried. Had
he frightened her off? Playing the exchange back in his head, he realized he
may have come off a little strong. Maybe even a little crazy.

“I’m not crazy,” he said, facing
her. Her cheeks glistened with water, and some of it had gotten in her hair,
making it shine.

“Are you sure?” she said.

“Well, no crazier than usual,
anyway. But I’ve been looking for the woman that could live with my bear for …
well, ever since I
got
the bear. And
not only can you live with him, you can soothe him. Music to soothe the savage
beast. Only it’s not any music you can hear.”

She sort of smiled. “It’s music of
the heart?”

“Exactly!”

Still smiling, she shook her head,
and droplets of water rained out. “I still think you’re nuts, Rick.” But she
said it in a warm way, an affectionate way, and her tone of voice sent shivers
all throughout him. “Besides,” she said, “I don’t want to be your mate, or
whatever, just because your
bear
likes me.”

Ah
.
Laughing again—he was suddenly in a very good mood—he grabbed her hand and
kissed it. “Trust me,” he said, “all of me likes you. See?” He glanced down, to
where his cock was beginning to stir.

“Whoa, there,” she said, but her
eyes lingered on his manhood for a moment. With an obvious effort, she wrenched
her gaze away. “And I don’t mean him, either. I mean
you
.” She placed her hand over Rick’s heart, and he knew she could
feel it hammering. “I mean here. I want you to like me here.”

Clapping her hand against him, he
said, very solemnly, “I feel it here, too,” he said, then added, “
Especially
here. And it’s more than
‘like’.”

She swallowed. Clearing her throat,
she pulled her hand back and said, “We need to concentrate on practical matters
before any more …
er
, mating.” Her cheeks flushed.
“We need food, and we need to get back to Pine Ridge. I wouldn’t be surprised
if there was a search party out looking for me by now. People will be worried,
and if I don’t have a damn good story about why I didn’t call in, and just what
happened to me, well, I could lose my job.”

Frowning, he stood, then rooted
through the storage hole his crew had dug. Finding various supplies, he let out
a cheer when he found the fishing net, then returned to the stream and began
casting it. It wasn’t as much fun as fishing in bear form, but he needed some
calories in him before he could summon his bear for any length of time again.
His bear required a
lot
of food.

Barbara seemed to like watching him
cast the net out, then draw it back. Smiling, he made sure to bunch his muscles
in all the right places as he moved. It must have worked, too, because soon he
could smell the scent of her arousal even from here. After he’d caught a half
dozen fish, he made another fire and began grilling breakfast.

“Wish we’d stocked some
carbs
,” he said. “Some biscuits would go great with these.
But how would we store them?”

“A freezer, maybe. An ice box, I
mean. No electricity required.”

“Hey, that’s not a bad idea.”

It was her turn to smile. “Your
mate ain’t no dummy.”

His heart smashed against his ribs.
Staring at her, making sure she wasn’t making fun of him, he said, “What did you
say?”

She glanced away. “You heard me,”
she said softly.

He reached out, gently grabbed her
jaw and turned her face toward him. Her eyes were glistening with moisture, and
her lips were trembling. Feeling suddenly overcome, he crushed his mouth
against hers, and she kissed back, starting to get into it. They only separated
when he smelled the fish burning.

While they ate, she said, all
business once more, “We need to get back to the road. I guess you know the way?”

He hesitated, then downed his bite
of fish.

“Well?” she said.

“Sure,” he said slowly. “I know the
way back alright. But …”

“Yeah?”

“Going back like this could get you
fired. You just said so yourself.”

She lowered the portion of fish
she’d just been about to bite into. “What else can we do?”

“Go after those damn eagle
shifters, of course!”

“But how? I’m almost out of
bullets.”

“You have a whole clip of them on
the ground beneath their nests,” he reminded her. “If you could get to them, we
might be able to frighten the eagles off, or at least have a last-ditch way of
protecting ourselves if we had to.”

“I don’t know …”

“Come on, it’ll be fun.”

She looked amused. “You have a
different definition of fun than I do, Winnie. They almost killed you last
time.”

“Almost,
schmalmost
.”

She seemed to be turning the idea
over in her mind. “If I
could
bring
back the Glitter Thief, that
would
probably save my job. Especially if I had the jewels he’d stolen, too.”

Rick rubbed his hands eagerly.
“Then let’s do it.”

“But how?”

“I, uh … the Force?”

A huge grin split her face. “You’re
a
Star Wars
fan?”

He raised a hand palm-out as if
reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. “As Luke as my witness.”

She squeezed his thigh. In a soft,
raspy voice, she said, “You really
might
just be my mate.”

He cupped one of her breasts and squeezed
gently. She moaned, and he could smell that wonderful aroma coming from her
again.

“
Star Wars
has never gotten me laid before,” he said, “but I always
knew it would pay off eventually.”

She laughed and pulled back—again!
Why was she so on-task all the time? Jeez, what did a guy have to do to get
some nookie around here?

“Catch the bad guys first,” she
said. “
Then
I’ll show you my Princess
Leia
Slave Outfit.”

He whistled. “Sounds like a date,
Officer. But how are we gonna catch them?”

She bit her lower lip cutely.
Slowly her gaze drifted to something over his shoulder, and she smiled.

“I have an idea,” she said.

She started to move, but something
made Rick jerk his head up. The motion startled her, and she stopped.

“What is it?” she said, breath catching.

Grimly, he turned to her.

“Wings,” he said.

Son of a bitch
,
she thought.
It’s always something.

“The eagle shifters?” she said,
just to make sure.

He nodded. “They’re close. I can’t
tell how many—maybe five. I think there were about a dozen in their convocation,
if I remember right.”

“
Convo
-what?”

“That’s what a group of eagles is
called. I thought everyone knew that.”

“Apparently not. Maybe I haven’t
lived in the mountains long enough.” Hastily she began throwing on her clothes
while Rick doused the fire and tossed the supplies his crew had left here back
in their hole.

“The eagles may have seen the
smoke,” he said, staring at the errant puffs still curling up to the sky.

“Then they’ll be on the way here,”
she said. “They won’t be sure it’s us, though. If we can get far enough away …”

“No time. They’ll be on us in
moments.”

Icy fingers traced her spine. “Then
how—?”

He grabbed her hand. “Do you trust
me?”

She nodded, unable to manage words.

He tugged her toward the lagoon.
Realizing what he intended, she unclipped her holster and stashed it in the
hole with the other gear so that her gun wouldn’t get wet. That done, Barbara
and Rick splashed down the beach into the deeper water, and she couldn’t help a
shudder when the cold water reached her waist.

“We’ll go under,” he said. “On
three. Three. Two. One!”

Barb just saw the dark wedge of the
first wing cresting the
treeline
when he reached
One
, and they both ducked under the
surface of the water. Being fully immersed in the cold shocked her, but it also
steadied her, sobered her. It was so clear she could see every inch of Rick,
every bump of gooseflesh on his arms and chest …

Shit. It was
too
clear. The eagles would be able to see them right through the
water!

Swearing internally, she grabbed
his
hand this time and kicked toward the
falls. Instantly she wished she hadn’t dressed before doing this. The clothes
dragged at her, and her shoes were ridiculously cumbersome in the water.
Nevertheless, adrenaline gave her strength and she was able to put some
distance between herself and the beach. Soon she and Rick made it to the falls,
then passed under them. Gasping, they popped up on the far side, hidden by a
curtain of water on one side and a shelf of rock above. Barbara heard the
eagles calling to each other over the pounding of the water, but she was pretty
sure the birds couldn’t hear her and Rick, no matter how hard she breathed or
how fast her heart beat. And it
was
beating fast. Once again, she was surprised it didn’t bust out of her chest and
do the Charleston.

Rick drew her close and wrapped an
arm around her. He really did like touching her—not that she had any complaints.
Oh no. It had just been a long time since she’d been around a
handsy
man, and
that
man hadn’t been one she’d wanted
get
handsy
with.

Hers and Rick’s faces were very
close. His was flushed, with beads of water glistening like dew in his stubble.
More water tangled in his wavy brown hair and made his lustrous eyebrows gleam.
Staring into those brown eyes, feeling his strong arm around her, Barbara felt
safe, no matter how many murderous eagle shifters were after them. For this one
moment, it was as if she and Rick occupied a separate world, a newly formed
bubble of reality just for them, far from any danger. Time stood still, and
there was only her and him, his hard body pressed against her, and the raging
falls beside them.

He
was feeling more than just safe, that was clear. The excitement plus their
proximity had done something to his libido, and his huge cock had stiffed and
was rubbing between her legs. She bit her lip and moved her hips against
him—but only for a moment. Another eagle cry made her remember what was at
stake. Smiling despite herself, she placed her hands against Rick’s chest and
pushed away, then treaded water a few feet away from him. He gave her a sad
puppy-dog look, and she felt her core grow hot, but she thought of taxes and
her mother’s butterfly collection and soon the mood passed.

The eagles didn’t pass, not for a
while. They circled the lagoon, screeching, for what seemed like hours but was
really probably only a few minutes, then moved on. Barbara heard their cries
grow faint, then vanish altogether.

Rick had swum over to a boulder
sticking out of the water, and he pulled her up beside him. Together they lay
side by side, panting. He was still naked and turned on, and there was a lusty
glint in his eyes when he angled his face toward her.

“I bet they’re far away by now,” he
said, leadingly.

She raised an eyebrow. “You mean
out of hearing distance?”

“Exactly.” His grin turned into a
wicked leer, and she laughed, feeling a tingling sensation run all through her
body. Here was a hot naked guy who clearly wanted her even after they’d already
done it twice, which was all she’d ever thought he really wanted despite his
big talk of mates. Why did she keep turning him down?

“No time,” she told him. “We’ve got
a—what was it?—a convocation to catch. Hey, that’s kind of catchy. Ha!”

He groaned. “You are such a tease.”

She patted his chest, letting her
hand linger on a huge firm
pec
. “Help me nab these
assholes and I promise, Winnie, as Luke as my witness, you’re gonna get laid
big time.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.”

She shivered in secret delight.
You better
. “All right, then,” she said,
trying to make her voice sound brisk and composed but hearing the crack in it
just the same, “then let’s set about it.”

They swam back to shore, and she
gathered her gun and holster, along with the item she’d seen over Rick’s
shoulder earlier—the item that had sparked her plan—and they set out into the
forest once more. Barb’s clothes were wet again, so, reluctantly, she had to
remove them and tie the arms of her shirt around her middle. Rick slung her
pants over one broad shoulder, drying them as they walked.

She shook her head in amusement.
“Two naked people without any ammunition—almost—or other weapons trying to
catch a band of thieving eagle shifters. This is one for the books, all right.”

“Is there a book?”

“There will be after today.”

He laughed. His hip brushed her
side as they maneuvered around a tree, and she swayed into it, loving the feel
of him, the size of him, the confident gleam in his eyes. Hell, she loved
everything about him, even the wild bear that lurked inside him. The wild bear
that only she could tame.

She thought about what he’d said
repeatedly—that she was his mate. Could it be? Was she
ready
for that? It had been awhile since she’d been close to a guy.
Rick had said that he’d found it hard—well, impossible—to meet a girl that
could handle his bear. It was the same for Barbara in a way. She’d found very
few guys confident enough in their own masculinity to handle being with a lady
cop. It just wasn’t something most guys seemed into. Heck, most of them seemed
to think she was a lesbian. A few had even seemed to find the idea hot, and
she’d almost hated to burst their bubbles, but she had. Instantly they had lost
interest. Oh well.

And now here came Rick, all brawny
and awesome, but he seemed to expect a bigger commitment than she’d been
prepared to make. In the privacy of her own mind, she’d accused him of being a
one-and-done man, but was she really a one-and-done woman?

No. Not with Rick, anyway. He was
someone she wanted to be around for a long time. Maybe in truth forever. But to
throw Forever at her on what amounted to a first date was kind of a heavy load,
and not one she’d prepared for. Heck, she’d pretty much been on the verge of
preparing for a life of loneliness and celibacy, and now her world had been
flipped upside down. It was just all so … sudden. What was a girl to do?

“I hear something,” Rick said,
snapping her out of her reverie.

He motioned with his hand, and they
crouched down, waiting. Presently Barbara heard noises through the undergrowth
of the forest. Soon she saw movement in a clearing ahead—people in throwaway
clothes carrying sticks and radios, arranged in a line. Some called her name.
Another, probably the group leader, spoke into a radio, his eyes grim.

“A search party,” Barbara said, and
slapped her forehead. “Of course.” They would be volunteers mostly, she knew,
with maybe a few off-duty firemen or police officers spearheading the effort.
“They’re looking for me just like I thought. Damn it!” She wanted to scold
herself for being an idiot, as well as truly being the worst cop ever. With a
sigh, she said, “I guess I’d better go out to them.”

She started to rise, but Rick
clamped his hand over her wrist. Gently, he tugged her back to a crouching
position.

“Think about this,” he said.

“Think about what? Those good
people are wasting their time, and maybe some taxpayer money. I need to put an
end to this.”

He frowned, his eyebrows drawing
together. “Maybe not,” he said.

“How do you mean?”

With a small smile, he indicated
her all-but-nakedness. “You’re in the buff,” he said. “
I’m
in the buff. You’ve lost a car and the bad guy. If you go back
now …”

Slowly, she nodded. “I’ll get my
ass fired.”

His eyebrows wagged. “It’s too nice
of an ass to get fired.”

She slapped his arm. “So what then?
We just go around them and be on our way?”

“We’ll find them when we need them.
After
we have what we need to save
your job. Deal?”

She thought about it a minute. “Deal,”
she said.

Staying hunched over, the two
circled the clearing, moving around the line of searchers, and pushed on
through the forest.

****

The woods were quiet. Tall, brooding trees stretched toward
the heavens like immortal sentinels clad in gently stirring green. The search
party seemed very far away indeed, and Rick and Barbara were well and truly on
their own. They had come closer and closer to the part of the woods where the
eagle shifters were, and now, when the two were almost there, Barbara felt
anxiety start to draw over her. Ice flooded her veins, and worry gnawed a hole
in her belly.
This is it
, she
thought.
We’re really doing this.

It was exciting, though.
Busting bad guy heads
, she thought. It
was what she’d always wanted to do. On the other hand, the eagles might kill
them this time. She was starting to wonder if maybe she should have simply
given herself up to the search party, after all. She might get fired, but at
least she could direct the other police officers to the eagles’ aeries and have
them arrested. Or whatever. But if she died, the police might never know the
eagles were even here.

Suddenly, she heard an eagle cry
out. She flinched and stood stock-still, and Rick paused beside her. Another
eagle called out, then another. Nothing attacked Barb or Rick, and after a few
moments the two moved cautiously forward again. Barbara craned her head, and
presently she could see the blobs of the eagle nests high above. She frowned,
watching them. Several eagles were in the sky, circling and screeching at each
other.

“What are they doing?” she
whispered to Rick.

He shrugged his broad shoulders. He
was still naked and now fully healed from his trials yesterday. Like some
awesome forest god, he stared intently up at the eagles, his handsome face
alert but not frightened. Barbara took strength from his poise. Instantly she
checked herself.
I’m the cop
, she
thought, and made her back as straight as she could get it hunched over like
she was.
I should be the example, not
him.
Still, it was clear Rick was in his element, and she was anything but.

She scanned the ground below the
nests for the clip of bullets she’d dropped. There! Something metallic gleamed,
half covered by dirt. That had to be it.

She
unslung
the item from over her shoulder, the item she’d grabbed back at the camp site,
and passed one end to Rick.

“Let’s set it up,” she said.

He nodded, and quickly and quietly
they went about staging the trap. When that was done, they inched closer to the
aeries.

“It’s time,” she said.

“You sure about this?” Now worry
did touch his eyes, but Barbara knew it wasn’t fear for himself but for her.

My
mate
, she thought.
Afraid for me as
we head into battle
. A giddy thrill rose in her, and she had to suppress it
in order to speak.

“Let’s do this,” she said, trying
to sound more confident than she felt.

He seemed to sense it—her fear.
Hell, he could probably smell it. Smiling a little, he wrapped an arm around
her and drew her in for a kiss. She resisted at first, then melted against him,
letting his lips crush against hers. He kissed her mouth passionately, then
trailed kisses down the tender skin of her throat. She ran a hand through his
glorious hair, then splayed her fingers against his tight abs. She loved the
feel of his flesh under her hand, loved the sensation of his lips against her
throat. She was breathing hard and knew her cheeks were flushed by the time
they parted. The kiss had done its work, though. Ice didn’t rush through her
veins anymore. Fire did.

“
Now
let’s do this,” she said, and she could actually hear the
confidence in her voice this time.

Rick grinned approvingly and
nodded.

“Game on,” he said.

“One thing first,” she said.

He looked like he was expecting
another kiss. Instead, she untied her shirt from about her waist and thrust her
arms through its sleeves, then began buttoning it up. That done, she took her
pants back from Rick and squeezed into them, too. The clothes were coarse and
uncomfortable, but she was able to wear them.