Bear Naked and Bite Marks (3 page)

She felt her purse start to vibrate, but
she pushed her uneasiness away. She didn’t feel threatened, more like she was
under a microscope. Is this how others felt when she blatantly stared at them?
She looked down at her purse and dug in for her cell. When she glanced at the
screen and saw it was Manny calling, she contemplated ignoring it. She felt bad
for even thinking that, but for nice and timid as Manny the meerkat shifter
was, he was also annoying and leaning more towards the creepy side. She slid
her hand across the screen to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hey, I thought you might not answer.”
Manny’s soft voice came through the receiver. It was hard enough to hear him
when she wasn’t in a crowded room, but his low voice was even more difficult to
make out.

“Hey, I can’t really hear you right now.
Maybe we can talk another time?” She had known Manny since the ninth grade, and
ever since he had first run into her, successfully knocking all of her books
out of her hand and onto the floor, he had been infatuated with her. During
high school it had been this cute little crush, something that she could
overlook those four years. She could even overlook the way he followed her
around on occasion after that and into their adult lives. It might have been on
the weird side, and Ary and Candace had even given her shit about it, but Manny
was the type of male that had never been popular in school, didn’t really have
any friends or girlfriends, and just wanted someone to notice him. How could
Melissa ignore him when all he wanted was to not be invisible?

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were busy.
It’s late, and I thought you’d be home.”

She took another sip of her water and
scanned the bar once more. “Yeah, I’m about to head home, actually.”

Manny started rambling off something
about his work, and she could tell he was nervous because when he was he
normally started talking about shit that she couldn’t even understand. He might
have been the least masculine male she had ever met, but he was a genius.

“Okay, well maybe we can get together
another day?
Maybe dinner?”

She set the glass on the counter and
turned back to face the bar.
“As friends, right?”
Asking
him that question was necessary, because even after all of this time Manny
still had these delusions that something could happen between them. This was
not an unusual situation she was in with Manny. Ary had told her she should cut
ties with him, and although there were weeks when they wouldn’t talk, she had
known him as long as she had known Candace and Ary. He might be what some would
consider weird, but he was one of the more genuine people she knew. He was just
a little persistent, well, okay, a lot persistent, but she couldn’t fault a guy
for trying. But they were too old for this shit. She didn’t see him that way,
never would, but for as smart as Manny was, he didn’t understand when she told
him that. She had spent time away from him, mainly because she had been too
busy, but even though he tried to act like friends she sensed his need to be
with her.

“Just as friends, Melissa.
I know you don’t see me in that way,” he said, but his actions spoke
differently.

“Can we talk about this tomorrow
,?
I can barely hear myself think, let alone hear what you
are saying.” She
stood,
let her eyes scan over the
several pool tables that were to her right, but didn’t notice anyone that had
her instincts flaring to life. She hung up and slipped her phone back in her bag.

“Hey, are you doing okay?” Bobbie spoke
from behind her, and Melissa forced herself to nod.

“Yeah, just feeling a bit off.”
She continued to look around the bar with only her eyes, and glanced over each
table that was situated to her left. There were a few couples seated at some, a
couple of lonely looking men, and even some bikers at others, but none of them
were looking at her, and none of them had her instincts going on high alert.
The only empty table was off to the corner, and there was a bottle of beer
sitting on the scarred wood. Despite not seeing anyone watching her, that
didn’t make her wolf ease in the slightest. She got some money out, gave it to
Bobbie, and decided just going home was probably the smart and safe thing to
do. Melissa made her way out of the bar and regretted parking away from the
streetlamps, but at the time that had been the only spot available. She headed
straight for her Honda, and the prickling on the back of her neck intensified.
She reached into her purse, tightened her hold on her keys, and silently dared
an asshole to try any shit with her. Melissa’s wolf may like to stay buried
deep, and was more laid back, but when the bitch rose up she was a force to be
reckoned with.

There was a sensation of a presence
right behind her, and she spun around with her hand raised, the keys pressed
tightly between her fingers, and her wolf right below the surface of her skin,
just waiting to emerge and take a fucker down.
But everything
inside of her stilled when she looked at the male standing a few feet from her.
He was big, probably one of the biggest shifters she had ever been around, and
that was saying something since her best friends
were
mated to some huge males. The shadows partially obscured him, but she could see
his hair was short and dark, and his face a hard mask of apathy. He didn’t show
any emotions. His shoulders were broad, the muscles pronounced. The t-shirt he
wore, although dark, was stretched across his wide chest. He was big, at least
a foot taller than she was, if not more, but it was hard to be exact from her
distance. Inhaling deeply, she picked up on the grizzly he housed inside of his
body, and sensed that the animal was more prominent than his human counterpart.
This wasn’t just a male, or a shifter. This male was her mate.

****

Declan wouldn’t lie and say that
watching her in the bar and then following her outside wasn’t a bit on the
creepy side, but to be honest he hadn’t made an immediate move inside because
he was just so damn shocked. After that initial surprise had worn off, he
watched her movements, learned every inch of her body with his eyes, and
calculated a plan on how he was going to handle just finding his mate. Then she
had left, and he knew it was because she sensed him. He had reacted, just
followed her outside intent on telling her exactly how things were going to go.
But as he stood a few feet from her, looking at the keys she had in her hand as
if she planned on gouging his eyes out, Declan felt his lips twitch with
suppressed amusement. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt any kind
of humor, but just looking at this female, the one that was solely his, and
sensing her fierce need to stay in control, had Declan feeling a lot of things
he had never experienced before.

“Just put the keys down, female, before
you hurt yourself.” Her eyes widened a second before they narrowed. She pursed her
lips together, and the sound of her grinding her teeth came at him loud and
clear. So, he had pissed his mate off. That had the corner of his mouth
twitching once more.

“The only person who is going to get
hurt
is
you,” she said, but did lower the keys. Still
holding them between her fingers, she glared at him pretty fucking hard.

“I think you should come with me, seeing
as you’re mine and we have a lot of fucking shit to talk about.” She cocked out
her hip, and Declan couldn’t help but let his eyes travel down the curvy length
of where her waist flared out. “In fact, just get in my SUV, let me take you
somewhere quiet, and we can get this whole claiming out of the way and move
forward.” Declan was a forward male by nature, but he had never just ordered a
female to come with him so that they could fuck. But then this wasn’t really
just about fucking her, but about claiming his mate.

“Excuse me?” There was an almost shocked
and anger-filled tone in her voice. “I know I asked for a mate, but damn, I did
not expect to get one that ordered me to spread my legs within five minutes of
meeting me.” She chuckled, but it was far from humorous. “In fact, I don’t give
a shit who you are, what your background is, or if you were the last male on
Earth. Your little ‘love speech’ is not really how to get a female to come with
you, mate or not.” She shook her head, and he could hear the exasperation in
her voice.

“Female, I have no patience for others,
but seeing as you are my mate, I seem to have found a lot of things out about
myself that I’m not used to. I’m not asking you to strip and spread for me, but
hell, you and I both know that what will happen between us is inevitable.” He
scrubbed a hand over his face and breathed out. His impatience was growing.
Never had he had to work so damn hard just to talk to a female.

“You asked for this, Melissa.”

Her name was Melissa, and it sound
really damn good rolling around in his head. She spoke to herself and looked
down at the ground. She smiled, but it was almost sarcastic in nature. Here she
was, talking to herself, and all Declan could do was try to get a grip on what
was happening inside of him. He wanted
her,
there was
no fucking doubt about that. Never had he needed to be inside of a female like
he did this wolf shifter. She was his
mate,
the female
that “fate” had declared was his. He certainly didn’t deserve a mate, but he
wasn’t about to walk away from one either, even if he should. He was dominant
by nature, and it was clear Melissa was no submissive, at least not the part
she was showing him. He never went after females that were not the opposite of
him. He needed them to submit, needed to stay in control in every aspect of his
life, sexually as well. Being a grizzly shifter already made him more
temperamental. Add to the fact that he was hardened, bred to be a warrior, a
machine without remorse, and had little human emotion and feeling left inside
of him, and it was a recipe for total dominance. But all it had taken to wake
something up inside of him, something he hadn’t even known existed, was the
smell and then sight of this lone female. “You’ve got one hell of a mouth on
you,
mate
.” She lifted her head and
narrowed her eyes on him once more. “Females are supposed to obey their mates.”
A strangled sound left her.

“First thing, my name is not
mate
. Secondly, you didn’t deserve my
respect, not when you basically barked at me to get in your car and go
get this
‘claiming’ out of the way.” She placed her hands on
her hips, and Declan was struck by how adorable she looked. Yeah, that was
another word he had never used in his vocabulary, but looking at her “adorable”
seemed like it fit perfectly. “I’m sure you’ve learned by now that I am far
from the submissive
type,
well, not unless I chose to
be.” That last part had him standing up straighter, had his grizzly bristling
right under his skin, and had a growl leaving him. She certainly wasn’t a girl,
and he would be an idiot to think she was a virgin, but that sure as fuck
didn’t mean he wanted to hear her talk about submitting to other males, which
was what she was implying.

They stood in the middle of the parking
lot, the streetlights barely penetrating the darkness that surrounded them. “Female,
all I am saying is that it would make things a hell of a lot smoother if you
just came with me. We wouldn’t have to do this cat and mouse game, because you
and I know that when this is all said and done you’ll still be mine.” He swore
he heard her growl, and he would have laughed outright if not for the fact he
sensed her anger and irritation growing.

“When I longed for a mate, it sure wasn’t
in the form of some alpha asshole with a controlling attitude.” For a moment
she just stared at him, and then she turned on her heel and stalked toward a
Honda that was parked a few feet away. He waited until she was right by her car
before he spoke.

“You do realize that you can run, but
I’ll just keep coming after you.” He saw the way her shoulders straightened and
could hear her cursing him. She looked over her shoulder, and the fire that
snapped behind her dark eyes didn’t mask the arousal that she tried so hard to
hide. Questioning what was going on inside of him would be pointless,
especially when the pull of his grizzly to this wolf was not something he could
fight. Maybe he should have tried to ease her into what he wanted, but he had
always been a take charge kind of male. She was a strong female with a stubborn
streak, and for the first time in his empty life he was looking forward to
chasing his mate. The hunt was nearly as good as the actual claiming, and
Declan knew once he did have his female beneath him, there would be no turning
back.

Chapter Three

Melissa was fuming as she drove home.
She certainly wasn’t a stranger to alpha males and their dominant natures, but
shit, Melissa had always been a third party watching from the outside. Charlie
and Trace were as
badass
as they came. In fact, all of
the males her friends were mated to struggled with being overly possessive and
territorial. Compared to Ary and Candace, who had their moments of strength
when they butted heads with their mates, she was a freaking bitch. Melissa
tended not to take crap from anyone, but when she had longed to find her mate
and start a family, she sure as hell hadn’t expected that big-ass grizzly to
start demanding she get in his car so they could “talk” and get their claiming
out of the way. Maybe she didn’t have to be so determined to be just as
dominant as he was, but his attitude had taken her completely off guard. She
certainly knew what her ocelot and wolf shifting friends had gone through when
they went against their mates.