Rancher Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Romance (Bear Haven Book 2) (9 page)

Despite being outnumbered, it was clear Jesse was on the warpath because he was protecting her. By all other means, Jesse was the calmest and most mild-mannered of the three McAllister brothers (except in instances when Mav needed the only form of communication that he could listen to—a punch to the face).

Bonnie didn’t know if she should be flattered or furious at the whole display. 

She had to admit the sight of her mate fighting for her was a little hot. But she still felt ambivalent about the whole situation.

Two men came at Jesse, one from each side, and he just grabbed them both and hoisted them up by their collars, his huge muscled arms fully extended and gloriously ripped from the exertion, tan skin showing under his torn denim shirt.

For a split second, it made her think of being in bed with him, but then she was suddenly reminded of why she was angry with him.

“If you ever try to lay a hand on my mate again, I’ll kill you,” Jesse said to the two men flailing in his grip, suspended midair by sheer supernatural strength.

As if they were two sacks of potatoes, or two bales of hay, Jesse tossed the men toward the door. They rolled across the floor, then scrambled to stand and bolted outside, lucky to have escaped a fate more unfortunate than the myriad of other unconscious and groaning men surrounding the booth where Bonnie was seated.

“You. You’re coming home with me,” he commanded, pointing to her.

She wasn’t sure how to respond. The more feral, primal part of her was stunned and turned on by the display of strength and wanted to be in bed with him this very instant.

But the woman that had spent her entire life controlled by others and had been deeply hurt by this man was still angry, still hesitant to trust him again.

“I’m not sure I want to,” she replied, stalling for time in the hopes that her heart and mind would agree for once.

“It wasn’t a question. I want you safe where I can see you. You’re my mate, and I’m not going to beat around the bush about it anymore,” he said, his voice deep and powerful. 

Bonnie wanted to disagree vehemently but felt herself hoisted from her seat in the booth onto his wide shoulder. She struggled against him but felt his impossibly powerful arm surrounding her, holding her there.

“Put the bill on my tab, Joe,” Jesse said, turning and speaking to the quiet man behind the bar, then walking outside, Bonnie still firmly perched over his shoulder.

The bartender just nodded and went back to wiping off shot glasses.

J
esse knew
he’d just blown it all again.

He didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he couldn’t just sit and watch while his mate was surrounded by other males. Even if he knew she was a wildcat who could probably take all the humans on without issue.

She was his.
His.

It kept pounding through his brain, whether it was right or wrong. His bear was screaming it. He should have stopped them somehow. Should have realized how much it meant to her to stay independent.

He could only think of one option. Get away from her and give her space from the possessive bear screaming inside him. He didn’t know how else to go back to the man he was before she’d come into his life.

And she didn’t seem to want him around at all.

He’d loaded both her and the totally drunk Seth into his pickup and headed out, and she was fuming quietly and leaning on the window as he zoomed up the curvy roads toward the ranch.

When he’d seen Seth stumbling out of the bar, he’d immediately gone on red alert. He hadn’t thought he could be more disgusted by the man, but he was wrong.

So he’d crept up to the window, just to see what was happening. And when he’d seen one of the men shove Bonnie into the booth, he saw red.

The next thing he knew, Johnny was in a trashcan and he was in the bar, ready to tear heads off.

Mating was a dangerous thing.

He should have known it from the start. Maybe he should have just told her right after it happened and then left to give her space to deal with it, instead of driving around all day, trying to buy presents and giving room for another man to move in.

Even if the last trip of the day, the one that had taken him until after dinner to complete, had been to buy her a ring so he could propose. The ring was still sitting on the dinner table at home, and he wondered if he should move it before he took her back.

But he didn’t want her staying at the main lodge. Not with Seth there, drunk.

Even if the grabby dude seemed a little more interested in harassing Jesse at the moment.

“Bonnie, he’s hotttt…” Seth mumbled, reaching around the front seat to feel Jesse’s shoulders.

Jesse shrugged him off, only slightly annoyed, but a harsh hiss from Bonnie’s direction made him jump in his seat.

“Get your hands off him,” she snarled at Seth, who immediately removed his hands and sat back.

Maybe his little wildcat was a little more mated than she thought.

Hm…

“I don’t know,” Jesse said, palming the wheel as they took a hard turn. “I’m not taken, so I guess I don’t see any reason Seth can't do what he wants with me.”

He saw Seth’s eyes widen hopefully in the rearview mirror and stifled a chuckle.

Bonnie snapped her gaze to him and folded her arms. “Don’t even think about it.”

Seth slumped back in disappointment, and Jesse sat up a little taller at the thought that his little cat was possessive.

Then he felt Seth’s hand wandering along the back of his neck, and his skin started to crawl. Not because Seth was a dude, but because pretty much anyone but Bonnie touching him that way made him profoundly uncomfortable.

“Stop it,” he said.

But Seth continued to touch and reached another hand around to feel his arm. A muscle ticked at the side of his eye. This was sort of a new situation. Bonnie was glaring at them with folded arms, but then she tsked and turned to the window.

Jesse batted Seth’s wandering fingers off until they arrived at the ranch, and then he angrily got out of the driver’s seat and, ignoring Seth, walked over to open Bonnie’s door to let her out.

But when he opened the passenger door, she wasn’t there.

He did a double take and then looked in the backseat to see she’d crawled back there and had Seth by the collar, shaking him.

“You don’t want him,” Seth said. “Just let me take him for a spin.”

“Like hell I don’t want him!” she snapped, snarling as she opened the cab door and sent them both tumbling out onto the ground.

Jesse’s mouth fell open as he lunged forward, trying to catch the back of her shirt. Instead, the two cats rolled onto the ground outside the truck, where they proceeded to kick up a huge cloud of dirt as they argued.

Jesse put a hand to his head, knowing better than to get involved in a catfight. Of all the things he’d expected to happen while winning Bonnie, her getting in a fight with her ex-fiancé over him was the last.

He moved forward to try and separate them, but the next moment, with a popping sound and a huge cloud of dust, she and Seth were gone.

In their place were two smooth, large lynxes. Much bigger than regular lynxes because they were shifters. But otherwise, they looked the same. Spotted, strong, with graceful faces and long ears with black tufts at the ends that looked slightly comical.

But there was nothing comical about the way they were circling each other. Like two cats in heat fighting over a male.

It was a situation no bear ever expected to be in, and Jesse found himself scratching his head. But a voice inside him told him to just step back. To see what Bonnie could do. To stop being controlling for once and trust someone else to take care of things.

Despite hating it, he sat on a nearby tree stump to watch the fight.

But if the bastard dared hurt Bonnie, all bets were off.

B
onnie didn’t really know
what had happened. One moment she’d been sulking, trying to figure out what to do with Jesse when they got home, and the next, someone had dared to touch her mate and the cat in her had screeched bloody murder.

Then it had just been a matter of minutes until they got home and she could tear Seth’s throat out for touching what wasn’t his.

Somehow, despite the years of repression and lying and control, nothing had made her hate him as much as putting his hands on Jesse.

Definitely something to think about in the scheme of this whole mating thing.

“Stay away from my mate,” she hissed as they circled carefully. She wasn’t afraid of Seth. Female cats were often just as strong or stronger than the males.

Seth shook his head, smirking, as he licked his paw in cat form. “Cats don’t mate like bears do. We’re more evolved. That’s why we get matched up for good genetic breeding.”

“Maybe cats don’t know how they’d prefer to mate because someone is always making decisions for them,” she retorted.

“Maybe. But either way, this is different,” Seth said, eyeing Jesse, who looked profoundly uncomfortable. Seth sniffed the air. “Have you scented it already? It took me a minute, but it’s definitely there…”

“What?” Bonnie asked, scenting the air as well.

“He’s got cat blood in him,” Seth said, grinning. “Cougar, I’d say.”

Bonnie frowned. There was a family of cougars that lived on a neighboring ranch. Was it possible something had happened there, earlier in the family tree? Did it have something to do with how the families always seemed to be at odds?

“He was able to scent you were a shifter, right?” Seth challenged. “He couldn’t do that if he didn’t have cat blood.”

“I assure you, I’m full bear,” Jesse said. “I shift to a bear.”

“Doesn’t mean you don’t have some cat,” Seth said.

Bonnie sighed. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is you get on a plane tomorrow and go back to the world you belong in.”

Seth spat angrily, pacing and kicking up dust. “I don’t belong anywhere anymore. I’ll be a disgrace if I go back without you. I’ll never be accepted.” He jerked his head at Jesse. “If you don’t want him, I might as well have him.” He made as if to jump again, and Bonnie got between him and Jesse in a minute, swiping him hard across the face and knocking him down.

“Touch him and you’re dead,” she spat. “I’m sorry you’re having a hard time, Seth. I really am. But I was brave enough to leave what I knew and search for something better. Now you have to do the same.”

He stared at her from the ground, still looking drunk and a little wounded.

She padded over to him and looked down. “It’s time for you to find a way to be happy. Because I’ve found mine.”

Seth sighed with a somber expression and got to his feet, swaying slightly. “I’m sorry. Somehow, I always manage to screw things up.” He looked between her and Jesse. “But you two should work this out. You’re lucky. You want each other. You have it easy. Now stop acting like babies and work out your shit. Because there are people who want what you have and can’t have it.”

Then with a swish of his tail, he disappeared into the brush, his quick footsteps carrying him deep into the forest.

Jesse stood, looking after him. “Should we go find him?”

“No,” she said, standing. “He’s a purebred cat. He has great direction and scenting abilities. He can’t get lost. He’s a powerful animal. I’ll give him that.”

Jesse nodded. She wondered if he felt as ashamed as she did, thinking about how immature they’d both been. At least, unlike Seth, they had things mostly worked out. He now had a whole different world to contend with.

She’d already found what she wanted, and she’d just been throwing a temper tantrum because it hadn’t all gone according to plan.

“I’m sorry,” they both said, staring at each other at once.

Then Jesse threw his head back, laughing, and Bonnie walked toward him in cat form. She wasn’t at all surprised when he picked her up in cat form. She was large but still small compared to other cat shifters, and with his huge bear strength, he carried her easily.

“Don’t shift,” he muttered against her. “I don’t want anyone to see you.”

She flushed. He meant he didn’t want anyone to see her naked. Well, that was fine with her.

She was quiet as they walked back to his cabin. It was a silent, starry night, and things felt peaceful for the first time since they’d met up again.

The past few days had been a whirlwind; that was for sure. Between the hot kiss in the barn, the rescue in the horse pasture, and the hottest and only sex of her life.

Somehow things had just flown between them, and she didn’t know if it was the mountain magic or just that she’d been waiting her whole life for something like this.

When they got back to the cabin, there was an awkward, hesitant moment between them as Jesse set her down. He opened the cabin door for her and let her enter in cat form. She walked to the master bedroom and shifted, not wanting to face him naked. She quickly rummaged through her things, putting on some clothes, and then walked back out to him.

He was sitting on the couch, hands over his face, looking unbelievably tired. There was also a small box in his hand, resting on his lap. He looked up when he saw her, and despite his mussed blond hair and the redness in his eyes from all the stress, he still looked utterly beautiful.

She sat shyly in a chair across from him. It was the middle of the night, and she had no idea where to start in talking to him.

“Here,” he said, handing over the box. “This is why I was gone so long. Jewelry isn’t exactly that easy to find out here.”

She popped open the velvet lid to see a sparkling cluster of diamonds with a little sapphire in the center.

“I don’t know why, it just reminded me of you. Something so different and special and beautiful.” He shrugged. “But I guess it was stupid to make gestures all day without telling you what was wrong.”

“A little underhanded, yes,” she said, folding her arms and tilting her head to look at him as she shut the ring box and set it aside. “But that’s not what bothered me.”

His blue eyes widened. “What bothered you, then?”

“You had no right to act that way about me and Seth. We weren’t mated, as far as I knew, and I was doing what I thought would actually give us a chance to move on and be serious. But we made no exclusive promises the night we had sex.”

“You mean last night,” he said.

She bit her lip. Already, that felt like a lifetime away. “Yes.”

“But you were kissing him,” he said as his large body seemed to curl in on itself. “And you were smiling.”

“I was smiling because he was fighting me! I was finally in charge with him,” she snapped. “And that didn’t give you the right to go charging around like an ape.”

“A bear,” he corrected but stopped at her snarl. He put up his hands. “I know, I know. I’m not acting like myself. But something in me goes crazy when you’re with another male. I didn’t mean to claim you. I mean, I would have at some point, but I wanted it to be your choice. I really did.”

Her lips pressed into a firm line as she tossed her red hair over her shoulder. “But then I sat on you.”

“Well, yes,” he said awkwardly, relaxing back on the couch and displaying his long, taut body. Damn, she wanted to touch it. Despite everything, she’d never wanted anyone as much as she wanted this man.

If this was being fated mates, then so be it.

“So what happens from here on out?” she asked, fingering the box lightly as it sat on the end table next to her chair.

His eyes flicked from her to the box and back again. “I don’t know. Whatever you want. You’re my mate. That’s it for me. But if you don’t want to stay, I won’t hold you to it. I don’t want you to be unhappy. That’s the last thing I want in the entire world.”

“I don’t know what I want,” she said, fidgeting with her hands before meeting his piercing gaze. “Except for right now. Right now, I know that I want you.”

Fire lit in his eyes, and a sizzling warmth inside her answered his call.

The tension in the room rose another couple degrees as they stared at each other, two animals wanting desperately to come together, but not knowing how to do it.

Jesse stood, walking toward her. Her whole body tingled at his approach. No matter what, she wanted it.

He made the cat inside her howl into the night.

And after seeing Seth near him, she needed to know he was hers. Perhaps that’s how he felt as well, because his hands as he caught her by the shoulders were possessive and his mouth crashing over hers was demanding. And when he threw her over his shoulder to carry her to the bedroom, she didn’t protest one bit.

Tomorrow could wait. What mattered right now was tonight.