Unbound (8 page)

D
ane let her kiss him
, let her guide their kiss into everything she was feeling. She released her grief and love in that kiss. She submitted to him and yet claimed him, her strength took his breath away. He knew she’d suffered, but he had a feeling that he didn’t know how much.

Eyes wide open, he studied the face he’d never forgotten, the very same face that haunted him nightly. He remembered their time together. His cock remembered it also, as it twitched within his pants. he remembered what it was like when he entered her body, pushing himself so deep in her, loving the way her eyes grew wide as he penetrated her folds and at the same time penetrated her soul, marking her as his though he hadn’t couple bonded with her.

A roar deep in his brain, his snow leopard reminded him that there was something better than memories.

But first he had something else he and his leopard needed. They needed the answer to the secret deep in the emerald depths of her eyes.

“So what do you need to tell me?”

“Come with me.” she took his hand and led them out of the forest toward the fields, and still forward, through more fields and forest, stopping finally outside the secret garden.

She unlocked the door with a key she’d hidden under a loose stone near the threshold.

Opening the door, he let her precede him into a place that had become sacred to booth of them.

She walked up to a rock, a large one, crisscrossed with veins of green and gray. Stopping in front of the rock, she lowered herself to her knees, tears streamed down her face.

“
I
was pregnant with your
— our — baby.” Her voice broke, and she exploded into sobs, releasing years of heartbreak. Years and years, over more than just the baby, more than just Dane.

His arms wrapped around her, firm, hard, holding her, taking her pain into himself and his leopard.

His eyes reflected her pain. She wasn’t ready for his embrace, she wasn’t ready for the way the pain infused him and then traveled back to her.

“What’s happening?”

“My leopard can’t let your ivy suffer alone. God, Glory. You’ve shouldered losing our baby and your family. And where the hell was I?” he forked his fingers through his hair. “Where the fuck was I?”

“Seems you were driven away.”

“I should have fought for you. For us.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“I thought you didn’t want me. That you wanted your betrothed.”

A shudder washed over Glory. She couldn’t help it. The idea of Perry was repulsive. “Never. I never gave it much thought. That was arranged when I was a toddler, I never gave it much thought.”

“Glory, I’ve always thought you were my only mate.”

“There’s never been anyone else, Dane. Ever.” she pushed him back,

“There never will be,” he growled. “I won’t let you slip out of my life again.”

“What about Dane Snow?”

“He lives in a garden with a beautiful ivy and a rock to remind him of the baby he and his mate never had.” Dane put his hand on the rock.

Glory covered his hand with hers, marveling how much larger his hand was, how it eclipsed hers.

“Dane.” His name slid off her lips as if she’d never stopped saying it, it was as much hers as it was his.

He lowered his head and touched his lips to hers, groaning into their melded mouths.

His sharp teeth nipped at her chin then traveled to her jawline, then down, lower and lower, trailing heat down her neck to the neckline of her top. His fingers played with the top button.

Her breathing became ragged as his fingers played over the buttons. Each slight touch on that button teased and tormented her with a need to have him open her top and touch her body.

Frustration kicked in. Glory reached for the button, pushing his fingers aside, she freed the tiny round button from the fabric. Her body craved him. Her ivy needed him, and more than anything, Glory yearned for him. His lips alit on hers, coming in for an hard landing, kissing her with an edge, as if driving reality of this home. She kissed him back, her tongue pressing between the seam of his lips, wanting him to know this was not only real, but also everything to her.

His fingers joined hers on the next button, moving quickly, releasing and parting the dirt and sweat stained fabric.

Dane leaned back, studying her creamy mounds, the way her ivory skin pushed upward and out of the bra, overflowing. He traced the outline of the bra’s edge, fingertips drifting off the fabric to course a heated path on her flesh.

“Stunning,” he murmured, his voice husky with desire.

The result of his subtle and light touch, fleetingly flirting with her skin as it traveled on and off the bra’s fabric was delicious torture that created a high in her. His fingers walked across the center of her bra, brushing the delicate pink bow in the middle, then over her abdomen. She looked away, unwilling to see what his face would think of the toll the years had taken on her body.

Dane put his thumb on her cheek, pushing her face toward his, making her look in his eyes.

“Don’t,” he said. “You’re beautiful. I want you.”

He flicked the button on her pants, releasing it. The zipper made a ripping sound as the teeth gave way to his manipulations. Her heavy breathing, coupled with his own deep breaths almost drowned out the sound of the zipper.

“I need you.” did those words just come out of her mouth? They did. And she meant every one of them. She needed to be with him, needed to have every bit of him with her. His eyes made a promise that she wanted him to fulfill. An eternal promise that she needed fiercely.

She couldn’t have stopped her hands from drifting to his wide chest if she’d wanted to. The muscles flexed beneath her fingertips, then her hands snaked across his shoulder, over his back and around his neck.

Dane lowered his head. His tongue followed the path his fingers had begun, leaving a heated trail from her bra to her panties.

His slick hot tongue ran along the panty’s edge, tracing the border from one hip to the other. He pushed her back, her body leaning against the wall, pulled her pants off when she raised her hips.

His breath was a hot warmth on her stomach, making her body pulse with desire.

Glory moaned, unable to control her passion. That moan set a domino effect in motion, he traveled his tongue lower, licking his way until her panties were below her knees. Her clit throbbed with yearning when he’d finally rid her of the panties and was beginning to make his way north, licking her inner knee, nipping at her the tenderest of her inner thighs.

Head leaned back, Glory closed her eyes. She jumped when he shoved his face between her legs with a fierceness that showed her the depth of his own desires. Alternately breathing hard and then holding her breath, lungs burning with exertion, she sought purchase in the tall grass, grabbing handfuls of it, uprooting without realizing she was doing that.

He sucked in her folds, taking them in deep, then releasing them with a pop, over and over again. The sound was like kerosene to the fuel of her lust, driving her further and further into an abyss of desire.

When his tongue plunged in deep, she bit down on her lip to keep the cry that threatened to escape.

“Dane. Please.” She raised her hips off the ground, forcing his tongue in deeper as a climax gripped her in its throes, her body convulsing with the orgasm.

Dane pushed a finger deep within, holding it there while he sucked on her clit, his tongue flicking the sensitive nub, setting it on fire.

Her moan started low but had risen to a squeal as she climaxed with an unexpected brutality.

Mid-climax, she sensed his movement, heard rustling, and then felt her hips being lifted and she was lowered onto his full girth.

Hot tears coursed down her cheeks, while he pushed her lower onto a shaft that filled her completely.

“Why the tears?” Dane thumbed the moisture from her cheeks.

Glory shook her head. “Joy. Tears of joy. Welcome home.”

He drove into her, over and over, while she climaxed without break, one searing orgasm after another.

A rollercoaster feeling surged through her when she felt his hot seed begin to pummel her depths.

“Bond me. Now.” She gasped the demand out.

“You’re sure?” His own words were a harsh groan.

“Now.” She nodded and screamed at the same time.

He sunk his teeth into the spot where her neck met her shoulder, and sucked. The essence he released immediately deadened the pain then turned it into a curtain of pleasure that blocked the pain.

“You’re mine.” His growl was exacting.

“Forever.”

She’d never loved anyone like this. She knew she never would. And as sure as she knew this about herself, she knew it was the same for Dane — in every fiber of his beautiful snow leopard being.

In this moment as her mate stood next to her, she knew that after everything they’d gone through, they deserved to be happy.

Now they would be.

Forever. Right here in Woodland Creek.

T
he End

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hank you for reading
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ith much gratitude
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S
HIFTERS FOREVER SERIES

Are you ready for it?

I have a whole world full of shifters to share with you. I’m listing them here, in the suggested reading order, though I’ve tried to make it so that you can pick up anywhere in the series as we all have probably done that at one point or another.

W
here’s
the best to start? Well, probably with
Shifters Forever
.

Shifters Forever
takes place in the mountains of Bear Canyon Valley. Here we find the happy-ever-afters of a set of grizzly bears and their fated mates.

•
P
rotection

• Seduction

• Persuasion

• Invitation

• Temptation

• Attraction

A
lways After Dark
is a spinoff with the white tiger from Shifters Forever: Vax, born Vittorio Tiero. He’s the one that helped Kane out during a shifter battle.
Always After Dark
takes place in Dallas, Texas. The Tiero family, a group of white tiger shifters is bringing some of its business interests from Europe into the United States.

• Controversy

• Territory

• Adversary

• Sanctuary

N
ever After Dark
is another spinoff that takes place in Europe. Here we visit cities along the Mediterranean and meet the old school Tiero white tiger shifters who are resistant to change. The Vax’s sexy half-brother Rafe is slated to be the next CEO of the Tiero Empire, but he seems to have the same liberal ideas as his brother Vax. Fur flies.

Sophie returns to Europe from Dallas. This is also the home of Anya, Astra’s white tiger friend. Maia the leopard from the underground fighting ring finds her home in Europe.

• Forbidden

• Forsaken

• Forgotten

• Foreplay

O
nly After Dark
takes place in New Orleans. The Arceneaux shifters, led by Lézare, Vax’s white tiger cousin — on his mother’s side. The Arceneaux are the black sheep of the family. Lézare doesn’t cave to public opinion. He dictates policy in the area he rules and he shuns old school European rules and regimes.

• Desirable

• Insatiable

• Combustible

• Undeniable

F
orever After Dark
introduces us to group of panthers that are related to Gavin’s Irish mother’s side. The panthers are related to elemental types like Mae and Astra. This is the stronghold of Mae’s cousins: Marco, the panther and Circe the powerful elemental who leads the OE (the Order of Elementals). The group that Mae shunned long ago.

• Notorious

• Scandalous

• Delicious

• Perilous

S
hifters
Forever After
follows a group of polar bears in New York. Russian and rumored to be mobbed up, they are a powerhouse of shifters, determining the fate of many on the East Coast. Mikhail Romanoff, Layla’s father, runs this outfit with an iron fist. Layla’s sexy cousin Malachi features prominently in this series.

• Complication

• Fascination

• Motivation

• Flirtation

• Captivation

• Infatuation

S
hifters
Forever More
is another group of grizzlies spun off from our favorite bunch in Bear Canyon Valley. Tempers and passions flare when the bears have to face a set of old enemies of Sara’s. Crossroads.

• Illusion

• Confusion

• Decision

• Possession

• Impression

• Passion

I
do hope
you’ll be able to join me on this wonderful journey with our Shifters Forever Shifters and their mates!

Hugs, Elle!

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